Donald Trump suggests meeting with China’s Xi Jinping to reach ‘humane’ response to Hong Kong protests
- Claiming China wants a deal to end the trade war badly, the US President said: ‘Let them work humanely with Hong Kong first! … Personal meeting?’
- US lawmakers and other world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel also called for restraint amid signs Beijing is losing patience with demonstrators
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to propose a face-to-face meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to find a “quick” and “humane” solution to the weeks of unrest in Hong Kong.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday night Washington time, Trump also appeared to link the outlook for trade talks with China with a resolution of the Hong Kong protests.
“I know President Xi of China very well,” Trump said. “He is a great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a good man in a ‘tough business’.”
“I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting?”
Trump also claimed that the US has the advantage in the bilateral tariff war that he started more than a year ago to erase the US trade deficit with China.
China is “eating the tariffs with the devaluation of their currency and ‘pouring’ money into their system,” the US leader said.
“Millions of jobs are being lost in China to other non-Tariffed countries. Thousands of companies are leaving. Of course China wants to make a deal. Let them work humanely with Hong Kong first!”