Donald Trump says ‘very good chance’ of reaching trade deal with China but Hong Kong unrest is ‘complicating factor’
- Trump wouldn’t say whether he will sign legislation backing Hong Kong’s protesters that passed in the US Congress this week
- US president says he stands with Hong Kong, ‘freedom’ and his ‘friend’ Xi Jinping
US President Donald Trump on Friday called his chances of striking a trade deal with China “very good” but warned that unrest in Hong Kong was “complicating” the effort.
More than six months of pro-democracy demonstrations in the city, some of which have been violent and deadly, are “a complicating factor”, Trump said in an interview on Fox & Friends.
He also declined to say whether he would sign recently passed legislation that would counter any moves seen as undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy from mainland China, prompting responses in support of the bill from some senior US lawmakers.
“If it weren’t for me, Hong Kong would have been obliterated in 14 minutes,” he said.
China has “a million soldiers standing outside of Hong Kong that aren’t going in only because I asked him, please don’t do that,” Trump said, referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping. “You’ll be making a big mistake, it’s going to have a tremendous negative impact on the trade deal, and he wants to make a trade deal.”