President Trump claimed at a United Nations Security Council meeting Wednesday that the Chinese are engaged in an active measures to disrupt the 2018 elections in retaliation for his hard-hitting tariffs.
Trump boldly accused China of working ‘against my administration’ to oust Republicans this fall as a tactic to evade punishing trade actions.
‘They do not want me or us to win, because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade,’ he declared. ‘And we are winning on trade. We are winning at every level. We don’t want them to meddle or interfere in our upcoming election.’
President Trump claimed at a United Nations Security Council meeting Wednesday that the Chinese are engaged in an active measures to disrupt the 2018 elections in retaliation for his hard-hitting tariffs
The U.S. president swung out at China more aggressively at the Security Council meeting that he called to discuss nuclear non-proliferation efforts.
In the middle of his remarks he delved into trade, however, railing against Xi Jinping’s government for election interference.
Trump made the charged claim with members of the Chinese delegation sitting three seats down. Like the U.S., China has a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
Xi did not attend the United Nations General Assembly this year, providing the perfect opportunity for Trump to declare a trade triumph and rail against China for other alleged abuses like currency manipulation and intellectual property theft.
The U.S. president said Tuesday in speech before the entire U.N. body that the U.S. would no longer be content to be taken advantage of by nations with closed off economies.
‘Those days are over. We will no longer tolerate such abuse,’ Trump said. ‘We will not allow our workers to be victimized, our companies to be cheated, and our wealth to be plundered and transferred. America will never apologize for protecting its citizens.’
Trump had pulled back on his verbal assault against China his first year in office after receiving assurances from Xi that he would assist the U.S. in managing the threat of a nuclear North Korea.
When it appeared that Xi was playing puppet master behind the scenes and advising Kim Jong-un, his closest ally, to yank around the U.S. this summer, Trump’s opinion began to turn.
He said ahead of his June summit with Kim that he considers Xi a friend but worries that he’s giving the North Korean dictator unhelpful advice.
Trump began moving, at the same time, to correct the trade imbalances with China he’d promised to take on in his presidential campaign but set aside while he was building a security alliance with Xi.
After threatening billions of tariffs against Chinese goods from nearly every sector, Trump hit Beijing with upward of $50 and then $250 billion fees on Chinese exports. His administration said there would be more to come if China matched the tariffs dollar-for-dollar.
By the time that Trump arrived at the United Nations he was entangled in a full-on trade war with the communist nation that he says is now waging a campaign against him of disinformation.
Trump did not provide evidence for his claim on Wednesday that China is meddling in the U.S. election, but it followed an ad buy in a major U.S. paper located in a top agricultural hub by Chinese state media pushing its line.
A four-page, China Daily inset branded as a ‘China Watch’ section appeared in the Des Moines Register on Sunday that experts say was intended to undermine Trump.