Considering Trump’s repeated slams on China during his presidential campaign – accusing China of “raping” the USA economy and unfairly imposing import taxes on American goods – there is no surprise that the summit is the focus of media attention.
As far as Beijing is concerned, it wants the U.S.to provide North Korea with some sort of security guarantee in exchange for either freezing its nuclear programs or denuclearizing, as it’s already promised to do.
One thing I think that is pretty clear is that many people in China believe that the U.S.is losing soft power and moral high ground.
The relationship between the USA and China has been uncertain since Mr Trump’s election. But this focus on unfair trading practices – and their consequences for USA workers – could also complicate Trump’s meeting with China President Xi Jinping scheduled for April 6 and 7. Here he is almost a year ago at a campaign rally in Indiana.
Trump has floated punitive tariffs on Chinese imports, as well as a more ambitious overhaul of the entire USA tax policy which would heavily penalise all imports in an effort to “reshore” manufacturing jobs.
It could be that Trump needs to take a leaf from the book of former President Richard Nixon, who invited the Chinese table tennis team to the U.S. for an exhibition match that ultimately led the two countries restoring diplomatic ties.
TRUMP: It was a very, very warm conversation. The second order seeks a more efficient enforcement of anti-dumping laws to keep foreign manufactures from undercutting USA companies with cheaper goods. The Mar-a-Lago meeting will be the two leaders’ first face-to-face encounter. She added, however, that slowing economic growth in China could limit Xi’s options for negotiating on trade.
Five months after his election on a stridently anti-China platform, Trump appears to have set himself on a course for collision rather than conciliation with Xi, raising doubts as to whether the world’s two biggest economies can find common ground. We are still waiting to see what measures the administration will take on issues of trade or alleged currency manipulation, but they are likely to raise tensions. “And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t”, Trump told the Financial Times.
‘I’m sure there will be ongoing discussions, though, on these issues because we have a range of actions out of North Korea which will make that necessary’. Many voices also call for strengthened and qualitatively improved relationships with the United States’ Asian allies and new partners like India. Even though Russian Federation can never replace China as a source of economic assistance or trade, it can mitigate somewhat Pyongyang’s sufferings. Consequences of a state sponsors of terrorism designation include a ban on arms-related exports and sales: restrictions on exports of dual-use items; restrictions on foreign assistance; financial sanctions against transactions with the designated government; imposition of miscellaneous trade and other restrictions; and potential liability in United States courts for acts that fall within the terrorism exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Johnson says what happens next is hard to predict.
“I think Trump, like Mao, has a kind of very visceral antipathy or antagonism toward people who don’t agree with him or can not be bullied”, he said.
