Trump ups pressure

US to put off China trade talks until Hong Kong unrest is over

US President Donald Trump has suggested that trade talks with China can wait until tensions in Hong Kong have eased, tweeting: “Of course China wants to make a deal. Let them work humanely with Hong Kong first!”

Mr Trump also praised Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying the “great leader” could quickly resolve the unrest in Hong Kong if he wanted to.

“I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting?”

Mr Trump has previously said little about the protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese city, except to make it clear he believes that Hong Kong and China need to “deal with that themselves”.

He has urged the two sides to exercise caution and voiced hopes that the situation will be resolved peacefully.

His more extensive comments on Wednesday came as US stock markets tumbled, in part because of uncertainty over Mr Trump’s trade standoff with Beijing.

Investors have also been rattled by the widespread protests in Hong Kong.

While Mr Trump has been reticent to take sides, some Republican and Democratic members of Congress have voiced their support for the protesters.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, issued a statement last week saying that “dreams of freedom, justice and democracy can never be extinguished by injustice and intimidation”.

The demonstrations are against what many Hong Kong residents see as an increasing erosion of the freedoms they were promised in 1997 when Communist Partyruled mainland China took over what had been a British colony.

Mr Trump said he knew President Xi well and voiced optimism about the off-again, on-again trade negotiations with China.