Trump: Past presidents, not Xi, caused trade woes
BEIJING — President Donald Trump lavished praise on Chinese leader Xi Jinping here Thursday, touting “great chemistry” between them while refusing to criticize his counterpart for the trade imbalance that Trump railed against during his campaign.
Speaking at a joint appearance with Xi in front of business leaders, Trump said the U.S. trade relationship with China is “a very one-sided and unfair one.” But, he quickly added: “I don’t blame China. Who can blame a country that is able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens? I give China great credit.”
During the presidential campaign, Trump accused China of “raping” the U.S. economy and threatened to label the country a “currency manipulator” — even though economic analysts have said Beijing has not artificially suppressed the value of the renminbi for years, a tactic designed to make exports cheaper. In his remarks here, Trump reiterated that the United States must “change its policies,” but he offered no details about actions his administration will pursue.
“We’ve gotten so far behind on trade with China and frankly many other countries,” Trump said ahead of a bilateral meeting with Xi, before adding he has “great respect” for Xi for “representing China.”
Trump blamed past U.S. administrations “for having allowed it to get so far out of kilter. We’ll make it fair, and it’ll be tremendous for both of us. My feeling toward you is incredibly warm. We have great chemistry. I think we’ll do tremendous things, China and the U.S.”
Trump echoed those points in a series of tweets Friday morning before leaving Beijing, including one in which he said, “I blame the incompetence of past Admins for allowing China to take advantage of the U.S. on trade leading up to a point where the U.S. is losing $100’s of billions. How can you blame China for taking advantage of people that had no clue?”
Trump’s comments drew quick criticism Thursday from Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
“The president may not blame China, but I do, and so do millions of Americans who voted for him and others who have lost their jobs at the hands of China’s rapacious trade policies,” he said in a statement. “After campaigning like a lion against China’s trade practices, the president is governing like a lamb. Rather than treating China with kid gloves, the president should be much tougher with China — as he promised he would be on the campaign trail.”
The high-stakes, two-day summit between the leaders of the U.S. and China was being closely watched for signs of how the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies will be able to cooperate on issues from North Korea to trade to cybersecurity amid mounting challenges in the Asia-Pacific.
The two countries did announce memorandums of understanding to increase trade by $253 billion, which the leaders said was a sign of greater cooperation.
In contrast to Trump’s effusive praise — at one point he called Xi “a very special man” — Xi appeared reserved and spoke in carefully scripted language about “win-win” cooperation and a “new starting point” for the bilateral relationship, language that Beijing has employed in a bid to get the United States to agree to allow China to operate in its “sphere of influence” in Asia without meddling. Xi did not talk in personal terms about Trump, although he vowed to work together in the “spirit of mutual respect and mutual benefit.”
Winding down his two days in Beijing, Trump suggested that if the U.S. and China jointly took on the world’s problems, “I believe we can solve almost all of them, and probably all of them.”
Trump reiterated his harsh criticism of North Korea and said he and Xi discussed their shared goal of pursuing the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula, a topic expected to take center stage at an international summit in Vietnam on Friday. “We call on all responsible nations to join together to stop arming and financing and even trading with the murderous North Korean regime,” Trump said.
But the two leaders did not take questions from reporters, a win for Xi, who oversees an authoritarian system that has sought to sharply limit free speech and press freedoms.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, briefing reporters after the meetings, said the U.S. delegation was “quite pleased” because there was “no disagreement” on North Korea. Trump pressed Xi to fully implement the economic sanctions on Pyongyang authorized by the United Nations Security Council, Tillerson said, and Xi outlined additional steps his government is taking to crack down on banks doing business with the North.
But Tillerson cautioned that Xi also emphasized that “it will take time” for the new sanctions to create stress on the North.
On trade, Tillerson called the deals struck at the summit relatively “small in the grand scheme of things,” given a trade deficit of more than $300 billion a year.
Asked about Trump’s change in tone on trade from the campaign, Tillerson said the remarks were intended as “a little bit tongue in cheek.” Asked if Trump had been too deferential to Xi, Tillerson replied: “I didn’t detect that at all.”
“I believe we can solve almost all of (the world’s problems), and probably all of them.”
—President Trump, speaking of the U.S.-China relationship