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News Analysis
President Trump says he wants Xi Jinping, China’s leader, to call him to talk tariffs. Mr. Xi is ghosting Mr. Trump, and markets are plummeting.
By Edward Wong
Edward Wong is a diplomatic correspondent and former Beijing bureau chief who has written a new book on China.
April 18, 2025, 12:52 p.m. ET
The global economy hinges on a phone call that hasn’t even been scheduled.
As the Trump administration escalates its trade war, and as China retaliates, the American president and his aides say they are expecting Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, to call.
“I have great respect for President Xi,” Mr. Trump said at a cabinet meeting last week. “He’s been a friend of mine for a long period of time, and I think that we’ll end up working out something that’s very good for both countries.”
But Mr. Xi is ghosting Mr. Trump. He has flown instead to Southeast Asia this week to meet with leaders there to try to persuade them to stand with China in the trade war.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman earlier this month posted a video of Mao Zedong speaking in 1953, during the Korean War, in which China fought the United States: “No matter how long this war is going to last, we will never yield. We’ll fight until we completely triumph.”
A bromance with Mr. Xi that Mr. Trump has desired for years is slipping out of his reach.
With that goes a quick resolution to Mr. Trump’s trade war, tipping the American economy closer to a recession and vaporizing trillions of dollars from the U.S. stock market since he took office on Jan. 20. The trade conflict also threatens to inflame military and diplomatic tensions between the two superpowers.
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