Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng has held talks with the US vice-president-elect J.D. Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk at separate meetings in Washington ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration, with both sides reaffirming their commitment to a “long and fruitful” relationship.
The meetings came two days after Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s phone conversation on Friday, when they “discussed balancing trade, fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects”, the incoming US president said on his social media account.
According to the Chinese readout of the call, Xi said that he and Trump “attach great importance to mutual interactions” and “hope for a good start of the China-US relationship” during Trump’s second term.
Trump will be officially sworn in as the next occupant of the White House on Monday and has told advisers that he wants to travel to China in his first 100 days in office, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Saturday.
During the Friday phone call with his future Chinese counterpart, the next US president said that he “looks forward to meeting Xi at an early date”, according to the readout released by Beijing.
During the first three months of his previous presidency in 2017, Trump also spoke to Xi via phone within weeks of taking office and hosted the Chinese leader at Mar-a-Lago in April that year.