Donald Trump said Monday that he’d like to see a ‘humane solution’ to demonstrations in Hong Kong.
The U.S. president said at trade agreement signing at the White House that China should respond ‘in a peaceful way’ to ongoing protests in the province.
‘Well, we’d like to see a very humane solution to that. I hope that’s going to happen, and you know, Hong Kong is very important as a world hub. Not just for China, but for the world,’ he told journalists.
Trump claimed he’d seen ‘a lot of Trump signs’ amid the crowds of protesters, as he continued to answer a journalist’s question.
‘And you have great people over there. I see they’re flying the American flags. They even have signs, “Make China Great Again,” “Make Hong Kong Great Again,” ‘he insisted. ‘They have tremendous signage. They have a tremendous spirit for our country. A lot of American flags. A lot of Trump signs.’
Donald Trump said Monday that he’d like to see a ‘humane solution’ to demonstrations in Hong Kong
Riot police officers detain a man during an anti-government protest in front of a police station in Mong Kok district, Hong Kong, China, on Monday October 7, 2019
Riots intensified again in recent days, and police fired a tear gas at anti-government protesters on Monday evening
Trump said he’d seen protesters, like the ones above, holding ‘Make Hong Kong Great Again!’ signs at the demonstrations
Trump claimed he’d seen ‘a lot of Trump signs’ amid the crowds of protesters. The one above is from a Sept. 8 demonstration
He added, ‘I’d just like to see a humane deal worked out. And I think President Xi has the ability to do it.’
Trump reiterated his claim that Xi Jinping, a communist dictator, is a ‘convincing man’ who could settle unrest, if he met with protesters.
‘That could be one problem. You don’t have a specific leader of the group,’ the American president said. ‘We just want to see a humane solution.’
He denied telling Xi that he’d stay silent on the protests amid trade negotiations.
‘No I didn’t,’ he stated. ‘But I do say that we are negotiating. If anything happened bad, I think that would be very bad thing for the negotiation. I think politically, it would be very tough, maybe for us, maybe for some others, and maybe for him.
He added, ‘I think they have to do that in a peaceful manner.’
Trump suggested the demonstrations could peter out on their own, using crowd size as an indicator of the movement’s ongoing support.
‘Now I will say the first time I saw it, if you look a number of months ago, I saw two million people. I’ve never seen anything like it. We talk about crowd size, that was serious crowd size, right? The crowd size is much smaller now. So maybe that’s saying something. But hopefully they can work out something that amicable,’ he stated.
Trump commented on the demonstrations as U.S. and Chinese deputy trade negotiators launched a new round of talks aimed at resolving the two nations’ 15-month trade war, with neither side showing any signs of giving ground.
About 30 Chinese officials, led by Vice Finance Minister Liao Min, entered the U.S. Trade Representative’s office for two days of negotiations, to be followed by the first minister-level trade talks in more than two months.
Students hold the US flag and sing the Star-Spangled Banner at Hong Kong University (HKU) at Hong Kong on September 20, 2019, as they rally for the US Congress to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act
The White House officially confirmed that the high-level talks, involving Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would begin on Thursday.
‘The two sides will look to build on the deputy-level talks of the past weeks. Topics of discussion will include forced technology transfer, intellectual property rights, services, non-tariff barriers, agriculture, and enforcement,’ White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.
Trump said they are ‘coming to make a deal,’ but he’d only settle, if it’s a fair one.
‘We rebuilt China,’ he said at a trade deal signing with representatives of is administration and Japan.
He claimed that China took advantage of the United States for many years before he assumed office, ‘But we don’t let that happen anymore.’
He referred to this week’s high-level talks as a ‘very important meeting’ between the two countries that have been at odds for more than a year.
‘And they have their top people coming in, and I have my top people doing the job. But if I don’t think they’re doing a good job, I’ll fire them and I’ll go over and take their place,’ he said with the flick of his hand, partially but not entirely in jest.
The talks are getting underway about a week before a scheduled increase in U.S. tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, to 30% from 25%. Trump has said the tariff increase will take effect on Oct. 15, if no progress is made in the negotiations.
The two sides have been at loggerheads over U.S. demands that China improve protections of American intellectual property, end cybertheft and the forced transfer of technology to Chinese firms, curb industrial subsidies and increase U.S. companies’ access to largely closed Chinese markets.
Trump launched a new round of tariffs after the last high-level talks in late July failed to result in agricultural purchases or yield progress on substantive issues.
As Monday’s talks got underway, the U.S. Agriculture Department reported more soybean exports to China, the latest in a recent flurry of buying by Beijing. China has booked deals for about 3.5 million tonnes of U.S. soybeans since early September, around 10% of its annual purchases prior to the trade war.
‘Recently some of the statements coming out of Beijing have been a little more positive,’ White House Economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox News Channel, adding that the Chinese have also recently bought U.S. pork and wheat.
‘It is possible that some additional progress will be made with China toward the end of the week,’ he said.
People wear masks as they take part in a rally in Wong Tai Sin area in Kowloon district of Hong Kong, despite an emergency-law banning demonstrators from wearing face masks
Reuters and other media outlets reported late last month that the Trump administration was considering ways to restrict U.S. portfolio investment flows into China, including the possible de-listing of Chinese firms from U.S. stock exchanges – a move that would mark a major escalation in the dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
But Kudlow said on Monday that delisting Chinese firms ‘is not on the table,’ though the White House had formed a ‘study group’ to examine investment issues.
‘What we’re looking at, actually, is investor protection, U.S. investor protections… transparency and compliance with a number of laws,’ he told reporters at the White House, citing complaints from exchanges.
In recent weeks, the U.S-China trade situation has become more complicated by the impeachment inquiry by U.S. Democrats on Trump’s request that Ukraine investigate business dealings by the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Trump also publicly asked China last week to investigate Biden.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Monday that neither the impeachment inquiry nor Trump’s request that Beijing investigate his political rival would weaken the U.S. negotiating position. Navarro told National Public Radio that Trump wants a big deal with China or no deal at all.
Another complicating factor is U.S. support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Trump has explicitly linked the trade talks to Beijing’s handling of the Hong Kong protests and preservation of the territory’s rights, a stance that China views as interfering with its sovereignty.
A new U.S.-China flashpoint ignited on Monday over a tweet in support of Hong Kong protesters by an official of the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets. China’s state broadcaster dropped the team’s games and two Chinese corporate sponsors suspended ties after Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted, ‘Fight for Freedom, Stand With Hong Kong.’
He swiftly deleted the tweet and apologized to fans in China, where the Rockets have a large following from the years that Chinese basketball star Yao Ming played on the team.