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Donald Trump has held his first call with China’s President Xi Jinping since leaving the White House in 2021, with the two leaders discussing the fate of TikTok just before the Supreme Court upheld a law to ban the app in the US.

The conversation between the leaders was their first in four years and came just two days before the law is due to take effect, forcing app stores to stop offering it to users.

“I just spoke to Chairman Xi Jinping of China. The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A.,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform on Friday. “We discussed balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects. President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!”

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the two leaders agreed to “set up a channel of strategic communication to keep in regular touch on major issues of shared interest”.

While it painted a positive picture of the call, the ministry said Xi warned Trump that the US should approach the “Taiwan question” with “prudence”.  

Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has refused to rule out using force to occupy the island.

Trump’s incoming national security team has been in contact with Beijing, but the call between the Chinese leader and incoming US president marks the first direct conversation between the men in four years.

The call comes three days before Trump is inaugurated at a ceremony that will be attended by China’s vice-president Han Zheng, marking the first time a top Chinese official has attended a US inauguration.

The Financial Times reported last week that Xi would send an envoy to Washington after Trump invited the Chinese leader to attend the event.

Some Trump advisers had hoped Beijing would send Cai Qi, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee who is very close to Xi and wields much more power than Han, who sometimes stands in for Xi in ceremonial roles.

Washington and Beijing are waiting to see what kind of China policy Trump will unveil at the start of his administration. He has threatened to impose tariffs on imports from China and many other countries but it is unclear whether he will do so to gain leverage for negotiations with Beijing or whether he will start negotiations over a possible trade deal with China and apply tariffs if the talks are not successful.

The conversation comes two days before US app stores are obliged to stop carrying TikTok, the video-sharing app that has been downloaded by more than 170mn Americans. The law — upheld in a Supreme Court ruling on Friday morning — bans the app unless its Chinese owner ByteDance sells the platform.

Trump has expressed support for TikTok, raising questions about whether his administration will prosecute companies that violate the law.

US-China relations plummeted to their lowest point since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979 during the Biden administration over issues ranging from US export controls to differences over Taiwan.

While Biden and Xi succeeded in partially stabilising relations over the past year, the countries remain at loggerheads over a range of issues, including Chinese support for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Trump has named several vocal China hawks to serve in his administration, including Mike Waltz as US national security adviser and Marco Rubio as secretary of state.

Scott Bessent, the nominee for Treasury secretary, this week said Trump would push China to buy more US agricultural produce, such as corn and soyabeans which were part of a narrow trade deal he did with China last time.

Bessent said Trump would also be aggressive in imposing export controls that would affect China. Beijing has frequently slammed the Biden administration for introducing tough export controls on chips and technology related to artificial intelligence in an effort to slow down the modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army.

But China experts are watching closely to see if some of the technology billionaires in Trump’s orbit, such as Elon Musk, will attempt to convince the incoming president to take a less tough stance on the issue.

Additional reporting by Joe Leahy in Beijing

When the fires in Los Angeles broke out just over one week ago, fire captain Shane Lawlor was quickly dispatched to the Palisades. He has been at work ever since. On his first day, Lawlor was on his team’s fireline for 20 hours straight with no breaks for food or sleep. He’s still working the fireline and has been sleeping on-site or at his station in Santa Monica when he’s not on duty.

Back at his home in Carlsbad, Calif., Lawlor’s son, Cian Lawlor, is a fifth grader and budding journalist at Magnolia Elementary School. The 11-year-old has a new podcasting kit that his family recently got him for Christmas.

Earlier this week, NPR asked Cian to interview his dad over Zoom. It was the first rest day since the fires began for Lawlor, who took the call from his post at the Santa Monica Fire Department Station 2. Cian was at their home in Carlsbad, a few hours south of L.A. This was also the first time the father and son had connected in a week.

“I’m glad he gets to do this and help people in need,” Cian says about his dad’s job. “He puts out his heart for the greater good.”

This interview was prepared and conducted by Cian, with help from Magnolia Elementary’s broadcasting club, MagTV’s director, Andrew Luria. The photos were taken by Cian’s friend and fellow Magnolia student journalist, Eivan Wheyland. NPR sat in on their conversation.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Cian Lawlor, 11, interviews his dad, Shane Lawlor, over Zoom. Cian is a budding journalist and member of his school’s broadcasting club, MagTV. He came up with his own questions for this interview.

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Eivan Wheyland

Cian Lawlor: What goes through your mind when you’re fighting fires such as this one? Were you scared?

Shane Lawlor: Scared? Not so much. But definitely, you have to take care of yourself. You have to understand your surroundings. It is so fast-moving, and there’s so much going on that hearing important radio traffic that could be very important is very difficult. Making sure that you know when you are in the wrong place and you’ve got to get out of there is very, very important.

Cian: How did this fire compare in its size and damage to the other fires you have fought?

Lawlor: There’ve been big fires in California in the past that I’ve been on, but nothing like this for pretty much everyone.

I used to live in Santa Monica before, so I do know a lot of the neighborhoods that have been affected and those neighborhoods are all gone. They’re not even there anymore.

In terms of the size of the fire, I haven’t seen anything bigger in my career. I don’t think very many people have. And in terms of the scope of the damage, it has been obviously just utterly devastating.

Cian: What were the winds like and how did they affect the fire and the job you were doing?

Lawlor: The wind makes you think that you are doing a good job on one side of a nice house, but then you go around the corner and the wind has caused the fire to start on the other side of the house. So you are kind of wasting your time and you need to redirect. So it just makes it very challenging.

The biggest effect on me was what we call embercasting. And that’s just small, tiny little bits of embers that blow off a tree or a building when they’re burning and they kind of whip around you. They can come up behind you. They’re all over and when they’re blowing it makes it very difficult to do your job.

Those embers are what start other fires. So you’re constantly protecting yourself from those hot embers in that wind and you’re constantly chasing the new fires that they’re starting. So that makes it very, very difficult.

Cian: When you look at the destruction and all the homes lost in the fires, what is your reaction?

Lawlor: It starts with a sense of disappointment that you couldn’t have saved a lot or more of these homes. And then it moves on to sympathy for the folks who have lost those homes.

And then you also kind of get a sense of appreciation for the fact that we still have a home to go to. We have to appreciate what we have, because there’s plenty of families who don’t have a home or anything like that anymore.

Screengrab from the video chat between Cian and his father.

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Cian: Tell me something that happened that made you really proud.

Lawlor: I’m very proud of the crews that were around me. They really did everything in their capabilities to save each and every home. They were working so hard all day and all night. No food, no anything for hours and hours, no sleep just to try and save whatever they could. That’s a big sense of pride.

Cian: What is the morale like at the department now?

Lawlor: There’s definitely fatigue, physical fatigue, and there’s definitely mental fatigue from it. But we’re doing okay. Everyone is very appreciative of all the support we’ve been shown. There is so much food and so many well-wishers coming to our fire stations that it really gives us a boost every day to keep going, knowing that we’re hopefully making just a little difference in someone’s life.

Cian: Are you still currently fighting fire? What does your job look like on a daily basis now?

Lawlor: Yes, I am. I’m currently assigned to the Palisades Fire. We started on 12-hour shifts, and now we’re working full 24-hour shifts. So you’re talking to me on my rest day. It’s as much a physical rest as it is a mental break. And then I will be reporting back for my 24-hour shift at 6 a.m. tomorrow, and I’ll be there for another 24 hours. So we are still directly engaged on the fire line, which is literally the very edge of the fire, where if the fire is going to kick up again, that’s where it will start.

You have people who hike in and they use tools to put in hoseline along the entire perimeter of this fire. And if anything comes up, now there’s a hoseline in place and they can fight it. Does that answer your question buddy?

Cian sits for a portrait at his home in Carlsbad, Calif. His friend and fellow Magnolia student journalist, Eivan Wheyland, took the photos.

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Cian: Got it. Do you have any questions for me?

Lawlor: What would you want to tell a ten-year-old boy whose home is now gone or has been affected by the fire?

Cian: I would tell them, I’m glad you’re safe. Look on the bright side. Everything’s going to be okay. How can we help you with your needs?

Special thanks to Cian’s mom, Jaleh Lawlor, Magnolia Elementary School’s broadcasting club, MagTV, and the club’s director, Andrew Luria.

MagTV is a 2024 fourth-grade winner in the NPR Student Podcast Challenge, which you can learn more about here.