China downplays tensions with US as Xi prepares to meet Trump

BEIJING/WASHINGTON: Beijing sought to play down tensions with the United States and put on a positive face on Friday as the US administration slammed China on a range of business issues ahead of President Xi Jinping’s first meeting with President Donald Trump.

Trump set the tone for what could be a tense meeting at his Mar-aLago retreat next week by tweeting on Thursday that the United States could no longer tolerate massive trade deficits and job losses.

Trump said the highly anticipated meeting, which is also expected to cover differences over North Korea and China’s strategic ambitions in the South China Sea, “will be a very difficult one.”

Ahead of the meeting, Trump signed executive orders on Friday aimed at identifying abuses that are causing massive US trade deficits and clamping down on non-payment of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on imports, his top trade officials said.

Separately, the US Trade Representative’s office, which is controlled by the White House, said Beijing’s industrial policies and financial support for industries such as steel and aluminium have resulted in over-production and a flood of exports that have distorted global markets and undermined competitive companies.

Seeking to downplay the rift, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang reiterated a desire for cooperation on trade.

“With regard to the problems existing between China and the United States in trade relations, both sides should in a mutual respectful and mutual beneficial way find appropriate resolutions, and ensure the stable development of Sino-US trade relations,” he told a daily news briefing.

The leaders of the world’s two largest economies are scheduled to meet next Thursday and Friday for the first time since Trump assumed office on January 20. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the United States has “serious concerns” on the US trade relationship with China.

“This isn’t a sit around and play patty-cake kind of conversation,” he told reporters. “They’re big issues.”

Trump “wants to have a very good and respectful and healthy relationship, but he also wants to make sure that he tackles the challenges and the problems that are facing American workers,” Spicer said.

Speaking earlier at a briefing on the Xi-Trump meeting, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang acknowledged the trade imbalance, but said it was mostly due to differences in their two economic structures and noted that China had a trade deficit in services.