China’s Foreign Ministry Says Xi and Trump Did Not Have a Call Recently 

President Donald Trump, left, poses for a photo with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP)
President Donald Trump, left, poses for a photo with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP)
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China’s Foreign Ministry Says Xi and Trump Did Not Have a Call Recently 

President Donald Trump, left, poses for a photo with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP)
President Donald Trump, left, poses for a photo with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP)

China's foreign ministry on Monday said President Xi Jinping had not spoken to Donald Trump recently, nor were their respective administrations trying to strike a tariff deal, contradicting the US president's claim in an interview with Time magazine.

"As far as I know, the two heads of state have not called each other recently," Guo Jiakun, a ministry spokesperson, said. "I would like to reiterate that China and the US have not conducted consultations or negotiations on the tariffs issue."

"If the US really wants to solve the problem through dialogue and negotiation, it should stop threatening and blackmailing (China)," Guo told a regular news conference.

Trump said in an interview published on Friday that his administration was talking with China to reach a tariff deal and that President Xi had called him. Beijing last week repeatedly denied such talks were taking place, accusing Washington of "misleading the public."

Speculation about trade negotiations between the world's largest economies swirled last week, after Trump asserted on Thursday that trade talks were underway.

The Trump administration would look at lowering tariffs on some imported Chinese goods, pending talks with Beijing, Reuters reported last week, while China urged the US to cancel all "unilateral" tariffs.

The two countries have each hiked levies on each other's goods to over 100% since Trump took office in January, rattling global markets and disrupting business operations on both sides.

China has exempted some US imports from its 125% tariffs and is asking firms to identify critical goods they need levy-free, according to businesses that have been notified, Reuters reported on Friday.

Chinese policymakers on Monday downplayed the impact of US tariffs on its growth in a bid to assuage concerns the broad US tariffs could derail efforts to shore up a fragile economic recovery.



Australia Says Will Not Commit Troops in Advance to Any Conflict

Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
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Australia Says Will Not Commit Troops in Advance to Any Conflict

Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams

Australia will not commit troops in advance to any conflict, Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy said on Sunday, responding to a report that the Pentagon has pressed its ally to clarify what role it would play if the US and China went to war over Taiwan.

Australia prioritizes its sovereignty and "we don't discuss hypotheticals", Conroy said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The decision to commit Australian troops to a conflict will be made by the government of the day, not in advance but by the government of the day," he said.

The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Elbridge Colby, the US under-secretary of defense for policy, has been pressing Australian and Japanese officials on what they would do in a Taiwan conflict, although the US does not offer a blank cheque guarantee to defend Taiwan.

Colby posted on X that the Department of Defense is implementing President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda of restoring deterrence, which includes "urging allies to step up their defense spending and other efforts related to our collective defense".

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking in Shanghai at the start of a six-day visit to China that is likely to focus on security and trade, said Canberra did not want any change to the status quo on Taiwan.

Conroy said Australia was concerned about China's military buildup of nuclear and conventional forces, and wants a balanced Indo-Pacific region where no country dominates. He said China was seeking a military base in the Pacific, which was not in Australia's interest, Reuters reported.

'GOAL IS NO WAR'

Talisman Sabre, Australia's largest war-fighting exercise with the United States, opened on Sunday on Sydney Harbour and will involve 40,000 troops from 19 countries, including Japan, South Korea, India, Britain, France and Canada.

Conroy said China's navy might be watching the exercise to collect information, as it had done in the past.

The war games will span thousands of kilometers from Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island to the Coral Sea on Australia's east coast, in a rehearsal of joint war fighting, said Vice Admiral Justin Jones, chief of joint operations for the Australian Defense Force.

The air, sea, land and space exercises over two weeks will "test our ability to move our forces into the north of Australia and operate from Australia", Jones told reporters.

"I will leave it to China to interpret what 19 friends, allies and partners wanting to operate together in the region means to them. But for me... it is nations that are in search of a common aspiration for peace, stability, a free and open Indo-Pacific," he said.

US Army Lieutenant General Joel Vowell, deputy commanding general for the Pacific, said Talisman Sabre would improve the readiness of militaries to respond together and was "a deterrent mechanism because our ultimate goal is no war".

"If we could do all this alone and we could go fast, but because we want to go far, we have to do it together and that is important because of the instability that is resident in the region," Vowell said.

The United States is Australia's major security ally. Although Australia does not permit foreign bases, the US military is expanding its rotational presence and fuel stores on Australian bases, which from 2027 will have US Virginia submarines at port in Western Australia.