TRUMP WANTS THE GOOD CHINA
Hosts leader, seeks help vs. N. Korea
President Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to his Florida retreat Thursday for face-to-face meetings where Trump said he would ask Beijing to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
“I think they will be stepping up,” Trump said.
Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, drove down a palm-lined driveway past a military honor guard to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
They posed for pictures with Trump and First Lady Melania before going inside.
“It is a great honor to have the president of China and his incredibly talented wife,” Trump said of Peng Liyuan, a renowned Chinese contemporary-folk singer. “A great, great celebrity in China, a great singer. It’s an honor to have you in the United States.”
The leaders of the world's two biggest economies were expected to spend some private time together before a dinner with their wives and others, kicking off a summit dominated by trade issues, which is set to conclude with a working lunch Friday.
Speaking after dinner Thursday night, Trump said he had not yet secured any deals from the Chinese leader, although the meeting was cordial.
“We had a long discussion already. So far, I have gotten nothing. Absolutely nothing,” Trump said. “But we have developed a friendship. I can see that. I think, long-term, we are going to have a very, very great relationship and I look very much forward to it.”
Trump promised during the 2016 campaign to stop what he called the theft of American jobs by China and rebuild America’s manufacturing base.
“We have been treated unfairly and have made terrible trade deals with China for many, many years. That’s one of the things we are going to be talking about,” Trump told reporters traveling with him aboard Air Force One, Reuters reported.
During the state dinner, the United States S launched a strike against Syria, firing more than 50 cruise missiles into an air base in response to dictator Bashar alAssad’s poison-gas attack on civilians earlier this week.
Trump delivered prepared remarks about the missile attack moments after dining with the Chinese leader.
During their discussions, Trump also briefly addressed escalating tensions with North Korea, and predicted that China would do more to tamp down the rogue, nuclear-armed nation’s constant saber-rattling.
Trump has yet to spell out a strategy for what his advisers called a trade relationship based on “the principle of reciprocity.”
He brought his top economic and national-security advisers to Florida for the meeting, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
“Even as we share a desire to work together, the United States does recognize the challenges China can present to American interests,” said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, also in Florida for the meeting.
Trump and Xi dined in a candlelit private dining room at a long, formal table set for about 30 people.
The summit brings together two leaders who could not seem
more different: the often stormy Trump, prone to angry tweets, and Xi, outwardly calm, measured and tightly scripted, with no known social-media presence.
The protocol-conscious Chinese are concerned that Trump could publicly embarrass Xi, after several foreign leaders experienced awkward moments with the president.
“Ensuring that President Xi does not lose face is a top priority for China,” a Chinese official said.
Meanwhile, the United Nations on Thursday condemned North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong-un, for testing a ballistic missile earlier in the week.
The UN Security Council strongly condemned the action, demanding a halt to all missile tests that violate UN sanctions “and are significantly increasing tension in the region and beyond.”
A press statement released by all 15 council members expressed “utmost concern” at North Korea’s “highly destabilizing behavior and flagrant and provocative defiance of the Security Council” by conducting the new launch less than three weeks after a previous one.
Council members said they “deplore” all North Korean ballistic missile activity that contributes to the country’s development of nuclear-weapons delivery systems and diverts resources from the needs of its people.
A US official said that Wednesday’s missile test ended in failure when the rocket spun out of control and plunged into the ocean.