Xi will visit US in 'not too distant future', says Trump

Remarks Come After WSJ Report of Officials Discussing Possible June 'Birthday Summit'

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US President Donald Trump said Chinese leader Xi Jinping would visit Washington soon, as trade tensions build between the world's two largest economies.

Mr. Xi will be coming in the "not too distant future," Mr. Trump said on March 17 while attending a board meeting at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the US capital, as he touted a string of recent visits by leaders from India, France, the UK and Ireland.

Mr. Trump has ramped up a trade fight with China since returning to office, twice hiking blanket tariffs on imports from the country.

The President has called those moves a response to Beijing's failure to crack down on the flow of illegal fentanyl and the precursor chemicals used to make it.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that US and Chinese officials were discussing a possible "birthday summit" in June that would see the two leaders - who both have birthdays in the middle of the month - meet for the first time since Mr. Trump returned to the White House. The US President did not detail specific timing for the possible meeting.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on March 18 at a regular briefing in Beijing that she had no information to provide on a potential Trump-Xi meeting.