Why did Xi hold back-to-back calls with Putin, Trump?

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, held back-to-back calls with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and United States (US) president Donald Trump this week, timing analysts said on Thursday was rare and significant as Beijing positions itself as a stable global power.

Here is what to know about the talks:

Why on the same day? Xi’s video call with Putin on Wednesday afternoon was followed just hours later by a phone call with Trump.

“The timing of the call is rare and interesting. It is not common for Xi to have two calls with Putin and Trump,” George Chen, a partner at The Asia Group wrote in an online commentary.

Xi and Putin spoke for 1.5 hours, according to the Kremlin’s foreign policy aide, while Trump says they had a “long and thorough” conversation.

“It does demonstrate that Xi can hold court and easily pick up the phone to speak with the two ‘strong’ leaders of the world,” says Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University associate professor Dylan Loh.

Russia and the United States are two of the “most consequential” countries to China, Loh says, though he cautions that the timing could have been “a simple scheduling issue”.

What was discussed?
Trump says he and Xi discussed trade, Russia’s war in Ukraine and Iran.

He also says China had committed to increasing soybean purchases from the US to 20 million tonnes in the current season.

The call confirmed that “in spite of what’s happened around the world, there is going to be a short-term tactical stabilisation of US-China relations”, Loh says.

The purchase of soybeans, he says, is a “low-hanging fruit”.

On Taiwan, however, Xi warns Washington to exercise caution in arms sales to the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own territory and has vowed to retake by force if necessary.

Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister Chen Ming-chi told AFP that “we don’t worry too much about this whole telephone communication”.

“In fact, we believe that it will contribute to stabilise the situation,” he says.

Meanwhile, Xi and Putin hailed the strengthening of Chinese-Russian ties as they try to present a united front against the West.

The two countries have drawn closer since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which left Moscow diplomatically isolated.

The calls took place as Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators met in Abu Dhabi for a new round of talks on ending the almost four-year war.

Putin and Xi discussed their “opinions” on the US, and “special attention was given to the tense situation in Iran”, the Kremlin says.

How important were the talks?
Xi is seeking to position himself as equidistant from Putin and Trump, says Benjamin Ho, assistant professor at S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

“China is trying to seek international manoeuvre space to ensure that whatever happens globally, it does not get fenced into a corner,” he told AFP.

Domestically, China is reeling from a recent corruption probe into Zhang Youxia, a top military general in the People’s Liberation Army, which sent shockwaves through defence observers.

Analysts say while Zhang’s investigation would likely not have been discussed with Putin and Trump, the timing of the calls could be a way for Xi to project confidence domestically.

Faced with uncertain and fragile domestic conditions, the “two-timing” calls were “probably for domestic posturing to demonstrate Xi’s political standing in the global theatre”, Ho says.

– Via Nampa

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