[It is unclear whether the letter was meant as a substitute for an anticipated phone conversation between the two leaders or as an ice-breaking prelude to such a call. Before his inauguration, Mr. Trump and his cabinet appointees made comments and took actions that alarmed Beijing and pointed to rocky ties between the world’s two biggest economies.]
By Michael Forsythe
 |
President Xi Jinping of China in Lima, Peru, last year. The fact that President
Trump and Mr. Xi have not talked since Mr. Trump took office in January has
drawn increasing scrutiny. Credit Cris Bouroncle/Agence France-Presse
— Getty Images
|
HONG KONG — President Trump has sent a letter
to his Chinese counterpart saying he looked forward to developing a
“constructive relationship” with Beijing, the latest in a series of
conciliatory signals by the new administration after months of heated rhetoric
aimed at America’s largest trading partner.
The letter, dated Wednesday, also thanked
China’s president, Xi Jinping, for a message he sent congratulating Mr. Trump
on his inauguration and conveyed wishes to the Chinese people for the Lunar New
Year, the White House said in a two-sentence statement.
It is unclear whether the letter was meant as
a substitute for an anticipated phone conversation between the two leaders or
as an ice-breaking prelude to such a call. Before his inauguration, Mr. Trump
and his cabinet appointees made comments and took actions that alarmed Beijing
and pointed to rocky ties between the world’s two biggest economies.
Since his inauguration, Mr. Trump has spoken
by phone with about 20 foreign leaders. Usually highly scripted affairs, many
of those calls have been anything but. The president’s conversation last month
with Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister of Australia, turned contentious when
Mr. Turnbull urged Mr. Trump to honor an agreement made under President Barack
Obama to accept 1,250 refugees from an offshore detention center.
But arguably no bilateral relationship is
more important than the one between Beijing and Washington, and the fact that
Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi have not talked since Mr. Trump took office in January has
drawn increasing scrutiny.
Lu Kang, a spokesman for China’s Foreign
Ministry, expressed thanks for Mr. Trump’s letter. He declined to comment on
whether a phone call between the two leaders was in the works, dismissing as
“senseless” speculation that Mr. Trump was snubbing Mr. Xi by not scheduling
one.
“The two countries share wide common
interests, and cooperation is the only correct path for both,” Mr. Lu told
reporters on Thursday in Beijing.
Even without a phone call, Mr. Trump and his
advisers have markedly shifted their tone toward China since the inauguration.
During the campaign, Mr. Trump advocated a 45
percent tariff on Chinese exports to the United States, complaining that China
manipulated the value of its currency. After his election, he broke decades of
precedent by talking to Taiwan’s leader, going so far as to say that the One
China policy — a linchpin of United States-China ties that recognizes a single
China with Taiwan included — was negotiable. Last month, in his confirmation
hearings, Rex W. Tillerson, the secretary of state, suggested that America
would bar China from its artificial islands in the South China Sea.
But after the inauguration, the tone has
changed, with dialogue and diplomacy replacing diatribes. Ivanka Trump, the
president’s daughter, attended a Lunar New Year celebration this month at the
Chinese Embassy in Washington. Mr. Trump’s granddaughter Arabella sang a New
Year’s greeting in Mandarin that was widely viewed in China. Her father, Jared
Kushner, who is a senior adviser to Mr. Trump, met with China’s ambassador, Cui
Tiankai, before the embassy event, part of an extensive dialogue between the
two men, Bloomberg News reported.
For his part, Jim Mattis, the defense
secretary, said that the United States would focus on diplomacy to help resolve
disputes in the South China Sea. Michael T. Flynn, the national security
adviser, talked by phone last week with China’s top foreign affairs official,
Yang Jiechi.
“I think the letter indicates that Sino-U.S.
relations should be O.K.,” Zhang Baohui, a professor of political science at
Lingnan University in Hong Kong, wrote in an email. “Kushner is said to be in
charge of Trump’s Israel, Mexico and China policies. His wife’s visit to the
Chinese Embassy and his own meeting with Cui Tiankai are signs that Trump does
not want to rock the relationship.”
The extensive business relationships between
some of Mr. Trump’s advisers and leading Chinese companies with close links to
the Communist Party may also be strengthening ties. Mr. Kushner, Mr. Trump’s
son-in-law, took part in talks last year with the Chinese billionaire Wu
Xiaohui to help redevelop the Kushner family’s crown jewel, a commercial
building on Fifth Avenue, The New York Times reported.
And sitting to the right of Mr. Trump at a
White House meeting this month was Mr. Wu’s principal business partner in the
United States, Stephen A. Schwarzman, who set up a scholarship program at Mr.
Xi’s alma mater in Beijing. Mr. Schwarzman, who is chairman of the president’s
business council, is chief executive of the Blackstone Group, which has sold
more than $12 billion in assets in recent months to Anbang and another
politically connected company in China, HNA Group.
“I think it’s an expression of good will,”
Jia Qingguo, dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University,
said by telephone of Mr. Trump’s letter. “It’s necessary to handle this
relationship with practical cooperation.”
Follow Michael Forsythe on Twitter
@PekingMike.
Yufan Huang and Kiki Zhao contributed
research from Beijing.