Donald Trump speaks with Xi Jinping to finalise TikTok's fate, discuss US-China trade — Here's what we know

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Friday, 19 September 2025, spoke over a telephone call with expectations that they will finalise the fate of the online video streaming platform TikTok, as well as some topics of trade between the two nations, reported the news agency AFP.

According to local media reports cited by the news agency, the call had started on Friday evening.

US President Donald Trump, before his talks on Thursday, told the news portal Fox News that he would be discussing “TikTok and also trade…” with China soon.

“And we're very close to deals on all of it. And my relationship with China is very good,” Donald Trump told the news outlets on Thursday.

Trump's call to the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, on Friday, marks the second time the US President has spoken to the Asian nation's head after making his White House comeback in January 2025.

According to the agency report, on 5 June 2025, Xi Jinping invited Trump to visit China, and in exchange, he also extended the invitation of a potential visit to the Chinese President. However, no travel plans have been finalised, but several analysts expect that Xi Jinping will reiterate his offer during Friday's conversation with Trump.

TikTok

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to settle the TikTok issue, after Trump repeatedly put off a ban under a US law designed to force the Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its US operations over national security reasons.

Trump told reporters on Thursday that he hopes to finalise something on TikTok. Trump's aim is that TikTok's US operations should be owned by American investors and companies.

“owned by all American investors, and very rich people and companies,” Trump said.

However, Trump also recognised TikTok's value and said that the platform had boosted his appeal to younger voters who helped him win the 2024 elections against the Democratic Party.

Earlier this week, on Tuesday, Trump again retracted the ban on TikTok imposed by the previous US President Joe Biden, citing national security reasons.

US-China tariffs and trade

The telephone conversation between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping also aims to find a compromise on the tariffs imposed by both sides during the heated tariff war earlier this year, which was driven by Trump's ‘reciprocal tariffs.’

During the month-long standoff, both nations hiked tariffs against each other to extremely high levels, resulting in a disruption in the global supply chain dynamics.

The United States and China reached a deal to reduce the import tariffs on each other, which expires in November 2025. The deal consisted of the US imposing 30% tariffs on all imports from China, and China imposing a 10% import duty on all goods imported from the United States.

According to the agency report, Trump recently called upon European nations to sanction China for buying Russian oil, after the Western nation slapped 50% tariffs on India for the same reason.

“If they did that on China, I think the war (in Ukraine) would maybe end,” Trump told the news portal.