WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi by phone on Friday, China’s foreign ministry said, the first call between the two top diplomats since President Donald Trump’s administration took office on Monday.
The call is the first publicly disclosed contact between an official in the second Trump administration and a Chinese counterpart.
According to a Chinese foreign ministry readout of the call, the two discussed U.S.-China relations and Taiwan.
Wang told Rubio, a known China hawk, “I hope you would conduct yourself well and play a constructive role in the future of the Chinese and American people and in world peace and stability,” according to the readout.
In his Senate confirmation hearing last week Rubio labeled China as the gravest threat facing the United States.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the talks, which come days after Trump said on Wednesday he was considering a 10% duty on Chinese imports because of Beijing’s role in the fentanyl trade.
On Thursday, at a speech to the World Economic Forum, Trump said he was expecting to do “very well” and to get along with China, but his inner circle including Rubio have different views on how to deal with China.
Last week, Xi and Trump agreed on a phone call ahead of the latter’s inauguration for a second term, to create a strategic communication channel on “major issues.”
During his first term, Trump quickly struck up a relationship with Xi and both men lavishly hosted each other in Florida and Beijing. But that did not stop ties deteriorating into a trade war that unleashed a series of tit-for-tat tariffs and uprooted global supply chains.
According to China’s Foreign Ministry, Wang told Rubio that the heads of state of China and the United States had “pointed out the direction and established the tone for China-U.S. relations.”
“The teams of both sides should implement the important consensus of the two heads of state, maintain communication, manage differences, expand cooperation, promote the stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations, and find the right way for China and the United States to get along in the new era.”
Wang also said that China has “no intention of surpassing or replacing anyone, but we must defend our legitimate right to development.”
On Taiwan, he said that the island Taiwan has been part of China’s territory since ancient times and China would never allow it to be separated from China.
“The United States has made a solemn commitment to pursue the one-China policy in the three Sino-US joint communiques and must not break its promise,” Wang said.
“A major power should behave like a major power, should assume its due international responsibilities, should maintain world peace, and should help all countries achieve common development,” he added, echoing statements U.S. officials have made about China.
(This story has been refiled to reinstate the dropped words ‘United States’ in paragraph 10)
(Reporting by Simon Lewis and Ryan Woo; Editing by Alistair Bell, William Maclean)
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