TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping reportedly used Monday’s call with US President Donald Trump to press Beijing’s position on Taiwan.

Trump said he had a “very good telephone call” with Xi and that they discussed Russia and Ukraine, fentanyl, soybeans, and other agricultural products, per CNA. He added that he will visit Beijing in April and has invited Xi to visit the US later in the year.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the call lasted about an hour. She told reporters the two addressed the Russia–Ukraine war but that “the focus was mainly on the trade deal that we are working on with China,” per The New York Times.

Although Trump did not mention Taiwan in his public comments, China’s foreign ministry and state media claimed both sides discussed Taiwan and the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Xi reportedly “outlined China’s principled position on the Taiwan question,” while Washington “understands how important” the issue is to Beijing.

Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund, told CNA that Trump recognizes Taiwan as a “third rail issue” in US–China relations. She said he has consistently been cautious when asked whether the US would defend Taiwan if it were attacked.

Given renewed attention to the US peace plan for ending the Russia–Ukraine war, Glaser said Trump may have wanted to discuss efforts to end the conflict to “solicit Xi’s help.” She said it is likely that “Xi opted to use the opportunity to make a statement about Taiwan.”

China’s foreign ministry said Xi “underscored that Taiwan’s return to China is an integral part of the post-war international order.” It added that the US and China “fought shoulder to shoulder against fascism and militarism,” and that the two countries should “jointly safeguard the victory of WWII.”

Richard Bush, former chair of the American Institute in Taiwan and now a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings, told CNA that linking wartime cooperation to Taiwan reflects a central theme in Beijing’s narrative of “the restoration of Chinese jurisdiction over Taiwan.” However, he noted, “Of course, it was the ROC (Republic of China) with which the US was allied and which assumed jurisdiction on Oct. 25, 1945.”

Bush also said it is possible Trump and Xi reached an understanding during their Busan meeting that, because Taiwan had not been discussed there, a follow-up phone call would “include attention to Taiwan.”

On Oct. 24, China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee approved the establishment of “Commemoration Day of Taiwan’s Restoration” and claimed it is “an important part of the historical fact and legal chain that Taiwan is an integral part of China.”

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council criticized the move, saying Taiwan’s Retrocession Day has nothing to do with the People’s Republic of China and that the Chinese Communist Party made no positive contribution to the war against Japan.