Trump’s $250B in Chinese deals not enough to stop a trade fight

President Donald BEIJING — Trump’s $250 billion in Chinese business deals probably won’t be enough to stop a trade fifight. Trump met with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Thursday, offering personal praise and qualified criticisms of China’s trade practices. China, in return, offered modest concessions on some thorny trade issues. The two sides also pointed to what they claimed were billions of dollars of deals between Chinese and U.S. companies to show face-saving progress. But behind the scenes, Washington and Beijing are gearing up for what may well be months of contentious relations between the world’s two largest trading partners. After initially focusing this year on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement and the United States’ free-trade pact with South Korea, Trump administration offifficials plan to pursue previous promises to investigate what they call Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual property. Lawmakers also plan to intensify scrutiny of Chinese investments in sensitive areas of the U.S. economy. Trump hinted at coming tensi ons on those fronts Thursday, saying he hoped to address “the chronic imbalance in our relationship as it pertains to trade.” “This includes addressing China’s market access restrictions and technology transfer requirements,” he said, “which prevent American companies from being able to fairly compete within China.” Both countries face pressure to show their reasonable sides ahead of what could be a diffifficult fifight. Trump made harsh criticism of trade with China a centerpiece of his campaign for president and faces pressure to deliver on promises to level the playing fifield and close the yawning U.S. trade deficit with China. At the same time, he is seeking China’s help containing North Korea, and on other issues. Trump struck a somewhat more conciliatory tone in front of his Chinese hosts. While China’s trade practices are unfair, he said, that stemmed mainly from what he called the failings of his predecessors. “Right now, unfortunately, it is a very unfair and onesided one,” Trump said of the two countries’ trading relationship. “But I don’t blame China, after all. Who can blame a country for taking advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens?” Xi faces his own pressures. Though he solidifified his politi cal base at a major Communist Party meeting last month, he must contend with a maturing economy now saddled with a mountain of debt. The two sides took pains Thursday to show common ground. The Chinese government announced near the end of Trump’s visit that it planned to reduce tarifs on imported cars and to open up its fifinancial sector to greater competition. The Chinese offers represented a bid to strengthen support for a less assertive U.S. trade policy by reaching out to two industries that have a lot to lose. One is Wall Street, which has profited handsomely from helping Chinese buy U.S. companies and real estate. The other is Detroit’s automakers, which have seen strong sales in China of cars built almost entirely in Chinese factories by Chinese workers and robots using Chinese parts.