WASHINGTON >> Who called first?

It’s the question that has put Beijing and Washington in a verbal sparring match even as the two countries are heading into a weekend meeting in Switzerland to discuss lowering sky-high tariffs that they slapped on each other in heated moments that have shaken financial markets and stirred worries about the global economy.

“The meeting is being held at the request of the U.S. side,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Wednesday.

President Donald Trump disagreed. “They said we initiated it? Well, I think they ought to go back and study their files,” Trump said Wednesday when swearing in David Perdue as the new U.S. ambassador to China. That followed weeks of each side suggesting the other side had reached out first, including Trump implying Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him, only to be refuted by Beijing.

When it comes to the world’s two largest economies readying themselves for what is expected to be tough trade talks, the public back-and-forth is no trivial matter.

“The obsession with who reached out first is a proxy fight over leverage,” said Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “For Washington, signaling that Beijing initiated the meeting reinforces the narrative that the tariffs are working. For Beijing, denying outreach preserves the illusion of parity and avoids domestic perception of weakness.”

Daniel Russel, a former U.S. diplomat who oversaw East Asian and Pacific affairs, called the exchange “part diplomatic stalemate and part dominance display worthy of a nature documentary.”

In his decades-long career as a diplomat, Russel said he is unaware of a single instance where a Chinese leader initiated a call with a U.S. president. “It may be pride, it may be protocol, but for Beijing, being the demandeur is to show weakness — and that’s something the Chinese system is hardwired to avoid,” said Russel, now vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

The Trump’s administration is less accommodating. “Their position is: ‘If Xi wants the tariffs lifted, he knows how to reach us,’” Russel said.

Not long after Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% and Beijing retaliated with 125% tariffs on U.S. goods,