--- title: Donald Trump and Xi Jinping Give Different Call Readouts description: China's statement about the call between Xi Jinping and President Trump was significantly longer and more detailed than the White House's canonical: https://time.com/4737001/donald-trump-xi-jinping-phone-call-readout/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-12T19:24:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:22:21.290Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump and Xi Jinping Gave Very Different Reports of Their Phone Call og:description: The White House summary was just two sentences og:url: https://time.com/4737001/donald-trump-xi-jinping-phone-call-readout/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fbab15ac05fbefd/6988c27fa988ca0c696bbb28/trump-xi-phone-call.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: Xi Jinping and President Trump Meeting og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump and Xi Jinping Gave Very Different Reports of Their Phone Call twitter:description: The White House summary was just two sentences twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fbab15ac05fbefd/6988c27fa988ca0c696bbb28/trump-xi-phone-call.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump and China's Xi Jinping Gave Very Different Reports of Their Phone Call > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Apr 12, 2017 7:24 PM UTC  Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) waves to the press as he walks with US President Donald Trump on April 7, 2017 at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida. Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) waves to the press as he walks with US President Donald Trump on April 7, 2017 at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida.JIM WATSON—AFP/Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Apr 12, 2017 7:24 PM UTC [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4736823/donald-trump-james-comey-fbi-russia-investigation/) spoke by phone with [Chinese President Xi Jinping](http://time.com/4722468/china-xi-jinping-donald-trump-florida-mar-a-lago-north-korea/) April 11 — and their official statements about the conversation couldn’t have been more different. [The White House ](http://time.com/4731650/white-house-shakeup-steve-bannon-reince-priebus/)provided no information beyond the fact that a phone call had taken place. “President Donald J. Trump spoke last night President Xi Jinping of China to follow up after President Xi’s visit to Mar-a-Lago,” it said in a statement. “It was a very productive call.” A readout from the Chinese President, however, [obtained and translated by CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/12/politics/white-house-readout-trump-xi-jinping/index.html?sr=twCNN041217white-house-readout-trump-xi-jinping0639PMStoryLink&linkId=36451520), not only detailed what the two discussed — topics included North Korea and Syria — but also mentioned steps to move the relationship forward. “We held in-depth exchanges on China-US relations in a new era as well as major international and regional issues, and reached important consensus,” said Xi. “Mr. President and I have deepened our mutual understanding and established a good working relationship. Next, both sides should utilize the four high-level dialogue mechanisms, namely diplomatic and security, comprehensive economic, law enforcement and cyber security, as well as social and people-to-people dialogues.” > [](https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/852218150980657158) Here’s the full text of President Xi’s readout, [as translated by CNN.](http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/12/politics/white-house-readout-trump-xi-jinping/index.html?sr=twCNN041217white-house-readout-trump-xi-jinping0639PMStoryLink&linkId=36451520) --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4737001/donald-trump-xi-jinping-phone-call-readout/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4737001/donald-trump-xi-jinping-phone-call-readout/"},"headline":"President Trump and China's Xi Jinping Gave Very Different Reports of Their Phone Call","datePublished":"2017-04-12T19:24:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:22:21.290Z","description":"The White House summary was just two sentences","url":"https://time.com/4737001/donald-trump-xi-jinping-phone-call-readout/","keywords":["White House","China","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fbab15ac05fbefd/6988c27fa988ca0c696bbb28/trump-xi-phone-call.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fbab15ac05fbefd/6988c27fa988ca0c696bbb28/trump-xi-phone-call.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Xi Jinping and President Trump Meeting","caption":"Xi Jinping and President Trump Meeting","creditText":"JIM WATSON—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4737001/donald-trump-xi-jinping-phone-call-readout/","name":"President Trump and China's Xi Jinping Gave Very Different Reports of Their Phone Call"}}]}] ```