President Donald Trump on Thursday renewed
his threat to cut ties with China, a day after his top diplomats held talks
with Beijing and his trade representative said he did not consider decoupling
the U.S. and Chinese economies a viable option.
The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia described
U.S.-China relations as "tense" after their first high-level
face-to-face diplomatic talks in months, although he said Beijing did recommit
to the first part of a trade deal reached this year and that coming weeks would
show if there had been progress.
Trump has made rebalancing the massive U.S.
trade deficit with China a top priority, but relations have worsened steadily
as his campaign for re-election in November heats up.
"It was not Ambassador Lighthizer’s fault
(yesterday in Committee) in that perhaps I didn’t make myself clear,"
Trump said in a tweet referring to his trade representative, Robert Lighthizer.
"But the U.S. certainly does maintain a
policy option, under various conditions, of a complete decoupling from
China."
Lighthizer told a House of Representatives
committee on Wednesday he did not see that as viable.
"Do I think that you can sit down and
decouple the United States economy from the Chinese economy?" he said.
"No, I think that was a policy option years ago. I don't think it's a ...
reasonable policy option at this point."
His office had no immediate comment on
Trump's tweet.
U.S.-China relations have reached their
lowest point in years since the coronavirus pandemic that began in China hit
the United States hard, and Trump and his administration have repeatedly
accused Beijing of not being transparent about the outbreak.
MULTIPLE POINTS OF FRICTION
Among multiple points of friction, the
countries are also at odds over China's moves to impose new security
legislation on Hong Kong, which have prompted Trump to initiate a process to
eliminate special U.S. treatment for the territory.
Trump made clear the deterioration in the
relationship last month when he said he had no interest in speaking right now
to President Xi Jinping, whom he has hailed as a friend, and suggesting he
could even cut ties with China.
Lighthizer said he expected to see more
supply chains moving to the United States because of tax and regulatory
changes, but also noted that the U.S.-China trade deal would result in
significant positive changes and increased Chinese purchases of U.S. goods and
services.
The Phase 1 U.S.-China trade deal calls for
China to buy $200 billion in additional U.S. goods and services over two years,
but skeptics say the pandemic and resulting economic slowdowns will make it
difficult for Beijing to reach its targets for this year.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met
China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, for a day of talks in Hawaii on Wednesday,
but those appear to have done little to improve the mood.
As the Hawaii meeting began, Trump signed
legislation calling for sanctions against those responsible for repression of
Uighur Muslims in China's Xinjiang region, prompting Beijing to threaten
retaliation.
David Stilwell, the assistant secretary for
East Asia, told reporters that China's attitude in the talks could not be
described as forthcoming and described relations as "tense."
He said recent Chinese actions, over India,
in the South China Sea and over Hong Kong, had not been constructive and that
Washington looked forward to seeing China reconsider its plans for security
legislation for Hong Kong.
At the same time, Stilwell said China did
recommit to following through on the trade agreement and added that efforts to
persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons were another area of
potential cooperation.
"The trade deal – the Chinese have
recommitted to that numerous times ... and they insist that they will follow
through," Stilwell said. "This is a good acid test to see if they
will be cooperative partners."
"We’ll see in the next week or two, or
however long it takes, (if) they begin to live up to their commitments,"
he said.
China described the Hawaii talks as
"constructive," but its Foreign Ministry said Yang told Pompeo that
Washington needed to respect Beijing's positions on key issues and halt its
interference in matters such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang, while working
to repair relations.
Hours after the meeting ended, China said its
top parliamentary body would review draft Hong Kong security legislation during
a session that began on Thursday.
Earlier, foreign ministers of the G7
countries, including Pompeo, issued a statement calling on China not to follow
through with the legislation, which critics call an assault on the territory's
democratic freedoms.
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