The leaders of the world’s two rival superpowers have plenty to talk about. But so far, it seems, they can’t agree on when they should speak, or even whether they already have. Over the last 10 days or so, President Trump has sent conflicting messages about talking to China’s top leader, Xi Jinping. Mr. Trump said on Feb. 3 that they would have a call within “24 hours,” then reversed himself, saying he was in “no rush” to talk. More recently, when asked whether the two had spoken since he took office, Mr. Trump said that they had. By contrast, Mr. Xi has said nothing about talking to Mr. Trump. And on Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry suggested that no such call had taken place since Mr. Trump’s return to the White House, apparently contradicting Mr. Trump’s claim, which he made during an interview with the Fox News host Bret Baier that aired this week. Mr. Xi, it seems, is in no rush to engage, stalling progress on a number of thorny issues in the nations’ competition for global power.
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