Beijing (AFP) – Donald Trump on Wednesday won the US presidential election over Kamala Harris, and world leaders were swift in congratulating the Republican. Trump vowed strict trade measures against China on the campaign trail for the White House, and the relationship between Washington and Beijing will be one of the key themes of his tenure.
Here is a selection of comments made by Trump about China:
— “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive,” Trump tweeted in November 2012.
— “I beat the people from China. I win against China. You can win against China if you’re smart. But our people don’t have a clue. We give state dinners to the heads of China. I said, ‘why are you doing state dinners for them? They’re ripping us left and right. Just take them to McDonald’s and go back to the negotiating table,” Trump said at a July 2015 rally.
— “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country, and that’s what we’re doing,” Trump told a campaign rally in May 2016, insisting that the United States had “a lot of power with China.”
— “China is letting us down in that they have not been buying the agricultural products from our great Farmers that they said they would,” Trump tweeted in July 2019.
— “For the people that are now out of work because of the important and necessary containment policies, for instance the shutting down of hotels, bars and restaurants, money will soon be coming to you. The onslaught of the Chinese Virus is not your fault! Will be stronger than ever!” he wrote in a tweet in March 2020.
— “China’s pattern of misconduct is well known. For decades, they have ripped off the United States like no one has ever done before. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year were lost dealing with China, especially over the years during the prior administration,” he said in May 2020.
— “As we pursue this bright future, we must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world: China,” Trump told the United Nations in September 2020, referring to the coronavirus pandemic.
— “Think of President Xi: central casting, a brilliant guy. You know, when I say he’s brilliant, everyone says, ‘Oh that’s terrible’…Well, he runs 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. Smart, brilliant, everything perfect. There’s nobody in Hollywood like this guy,” he said in July 2023 at a Fox News town hall.
— “I had a very strong relationship with him,” Trump said of President Xi to the Wall Street Journal in October 2024. “He was actually a really good, I don’t want to say friend — I don’t want to act foolish, ‘he was my friend’ — but I got along with him great.” Trump added: “He’s a very fierce person.”
© 2024 AFP
