Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio; says China is willing to properly handle differences and sensitive issues; China is willing to strengthen communication and cooperation with the US, Xinhua reports

• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held positive and constructive phone talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Readouts of this kind from Xinhua follow a familiar diplomatic grammar: 'positive and constructive' talks and willingness to 'properly handle differences' are formulaic phrasing that signals the channel is open rather than that anything has been agreed. The pattern in past US-China episodes is that such language precedes, rather than accompanies, substance; the market-relevant milestones have historically been leader-level engagement, working-group formation, and concrete movement on tariffs, export controls or sanctioned entities, not ministerial calls. The transmission channel on prior occasions has run through the yuan and China-exposed equity and commodity complexes, with conciliatory rhetoric tending to compress risk premia modestly and reverse quickly if follow-through fails to materialise. What distinguishes signal from noise is sequencing: whether the call is followed by a scheduled in-person meeting, a leader call, or joint statements with specific deliverables. Worth noting is the readout asymmetry that has recurred in this relationship, where the two sides' accounts of the same conversation differ in emphasis, and the US side's characterisation typically carries more weight for trade-policy expectations. As a standalone data point this is atmospherics, not policy.