The communication between Trump and Xi Jinping, the first since last January, is given a step and a move long sought by the US president. The tariffs that put China in the crosshairs, while opening a door it didn’t know how to open, brought the world’s two largest economies openly face-to-face in a battle that neither is currently in the mood to fight.

Since the “liberation day” announcements last April, the loser, at least in terms of communication, has not been Beijing, and the US president has since taken several steps backwards, putting – more than he would have expected and wanted – water in his wine…

The phone call between Washington and Beijing is clearly a development of the kind that brings new facts to the table, but by no means can it be called a breakthrough…

As things stand today, China has no reason to rush, especially since Trump’s plan to “drag” the Chinese President to the White House through the declaration of economic warfare has failed. Beijing has no objection in principle to a summit, but it is more likely to take place at a time and place of Chinese, not American, choosing.

Beijing has drawn a clear red line visible to the naked eye all the way across the Atlantic and will not accept any ultimatums. The domestic problem that the tariffs have brought to the US itself, and indeed at the sole fault of its president, is an excellent basis for the kind of “passive” pressure that Beijing likes to apply outside of Asia. The strong cards are all currently in the hands of Xi Jinping and to this end he is very unlikely to take new risks.

The examples of leaders who have suffered in front of open cameras are the main, but not the only, of the reasons he can directly cite for escaping American insistence…