Trump: China a threat to the world
WASHINGTON/ UNITED NATIONS: US President Donald Trump has said China is a threat to the world and blamed his predecessors for not stopping it from stealing America’s intellectual property to bolster its defence capabilities.
China has hiked its military spending by 7% to $152 billion as Beijing aims to counter the US push into the disputed South China Sea. “obviously China is a threat to the world in a sense because they are building a military faster than anybody and frankly they are using US money,” Trump, who was accompanied by visiting Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, told reporters on Friday.
Trump said the US presidents before him allowed China to take out $500 billion a year. “They have allowed China to steal our intellectual property and property rights and I’m not doing that,” he said.
“We work very closely, had intellectual property, all of the tough things work negotiated and then at the last moment, they said we cannot agree to this,” he alleged, referring to the abrupt collapse of the trade deal with China early this year.
“I said that’s all right we are charging you 25% tariffs and then it’s going up and it will continue to go up.”
As Washington seeks to use the UN general assembly to build support to take on Iran and call out China over rights abuses, a senior official said Trump will tout US leadership and a collective approach to challenges.
While Trump has questioned the value of the United Nations and scorned the importance of multilateralism as he focuses on an “America First” agenda, he will return for a third time to push religious freedom on Monday, address the General Assembly on Tuesday and discuss Venezuela on Wednesday.
“Obviously our overarching concern with Iran’s escalatory violence is going to be a theme,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We welcome opportunities to discuss collective response.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is due to address the United Nations on Wednesday.
Last week, Trump flirted with meeting Rouhani, but has since backed away from the idea. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Iran would never hold such one-on-one talks but could engage in multilateral discussions if Washington returns to a 2015 nuclear pact.
Trump will meet at least a dozen leaders during his three days in New York.
But he will skip a summit dedicated to tackling the climate crisis on Monday.