US president Donald Trump has suggested that a trade deal with China is a possibility, despite ongoing tensions over his trade tariff programme.
Responding to a reporter’s questions, Trump said that a trade deal with China was “possible”.
“We did a great trade deal with China. We did it great for farmers, great for manufacturers,” he said in a press conference yesterday (19 February) aboard Air Force One.
“They had about $50bn worth of our product, and we were making them buy it. The problem is that Biden didn’t push them to adhere to it,” he claimed.
Good relationship
The president added that he had a “very good” relationship with Chinese president Xi Jinping:
“He loves China, I love the US. So, you know, right there, there’s a little bit of competitiveness.
“The relationship I have with president Xi is, honestly, a great one.”
‘No winners’ in a trade war
The claims come despite Trump hitting China with a 10% rise in tariffs on imports into the US, allegedly in response to Chinese failings in addressing the flow of fentanyl across international borders. He also announced 25% rates on a variety of different goods entering the country, including steel, cars and pharmaceutical products.
Beijing claimed the measures were illegal and filed a complaint with the WTO.
In a press conference on Tuesday (18 February), Chinese government spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that Beijing would always believe “that protectionism will lead nowhere, and there is no winner in a trade war or a tariff war.”
Jiakun added that China would “continue to take necessary measures” to protect its interest.
Republican pushback
Trump’s claims of a trade deal and a strong relationship with China are not universally shared within his party.
Republican senator Tom Cotton, a China hawk, told CBS Morning that “most Americans did not understand the full extent of the threat China posed to our way of life”, adding that he wanted to “ring the alarm bell” about the threat posed by the Asian nation.
Cotton made the comments during the promotional tour of his new book ‘Seven Things You Can't Say About China’.
The Arkansas senator, who was once considered the front runner to be Trump’s vice-presidential nominee, avoided explicitly criticising the president but targeted top ally Elon Musk as “chasing Chinese dollars” and having “shamefully supplicated China’s Communist rulers” in his book.
