The US.President Donald Trump on Thursday said he had been soft on China on trade issues and said he was not happy that China had allowed oil shipments to go into North Korea.
“I have been soft on China because the only thing more important to me than trade is war,” Trump said
“Caught RED HANDED – very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!” Trump told.
Trump explicitly tied his administration’s trade policy with China to the country’s perceived cooperation in resolving the North Korea nuclear crisis.
“When I campaigned, I was very tough on China in terms of trade. They made — last year, we had a trade deficit with China of $350 billion, minimum. That doesn’t include the theft of intellectual property, O.K., which is another $300 billion,” Trump said
“If they’re helping me with North Korea, I can look at the trade a little bit differently, at least for a period of time. And that’s what I’ve been doing. But when oil is going in, I‘m not happy about that.”
China earlier on Thursday said there had been no U.N. sanction-breaking oil sales by Chinese ships to North Korea after the reports said Chinese and North Korean vessels had been illicitly linking up at sea to get oil to North Korea.
“We have evidence that some of the vessels engaged in these activities are owned by companies in several countries, including China,” An official of the U.S. State Department said
Post Your Comments