President Trump spoke exclusively with FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo in a broad interview, including how his view of China changed to coronavirus, why he fought to ban TikTok and WeChat, and how the NBA reacted to China.
President Trump said on Thursday that he sees China differently because the coronavirus pandemic began.
US-China tensions were high ahead of the pandemic as the two countries joined a year-long trade war and eventually began to see a bilateral deal before COVID-19 spread from Wuhan to the US
“It’s for plague and after plague. At the moment, I see China differently than I do for plague,” the president said in an interview with “Morning with Mary.”
President Trump. (AP Photo / Susan Walsh)
The two countries have been dealing jabs since COVID-19 forced U.S. states to implement lockdown restrictions – some of which are still in place nearly half a year later in an effort to contain their proliferation.
“They are running their country, and we are running our country, and we have other countries that are treating us very badly. … We have the new USMCA. We were in the process of aligning it with China, but the plague “But even before I had a full deal with China, and four days before it was signed, they broke it.”
CHINA’S XI SPEEDS UP IN ECONOMIC SHFT
U.S. and Chinese officials have blamed each other for the virus’ origin, though experts believe it has been transmitted since November from an animal – specifically a bat – to a human in Wuhan. The president and other senior administration officials called COVID-19 “the China virus” and “China plague.”
The president last week signed an executive order banning U.S. companies from doing business with social media apps TikTok and WeChat and in July issued similar restrictions against five Chinese companies including Huawei, Hikvision and Dahua, with indications of national security concerns to the National Intelligence Law of 2017.
President Donald Trump is preparing to sign four executive orders. (AP Photo / Susan Walsh)
“TikTok – I broke the deal – I said, ‘You can not do business in the United States.’ I also told Huawei, ‘You can not do business in the United States.’ I also have our so-called allies. told … if you go with Huawei, that’s OK, but we will not communicate … because the intelligence goes straight back to Beijing, “Trump told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo.
MEDIA TYCOON JIMMY LAI REPONDS TO HONG KONG ARREST, SET CHINA SENDING MESSAGE OF INTIMIDATION
He added that “there is no one smarter about China and Russia” than him “despite a media outlet being bought out by China.”
HUMAN RIGHTS POMPEO SANCTIONS abused against backers, calling it ‘Street of the Century’
The Trump administration has retaliated against China’s treatment of its Uighur Muslim population in Xinjiang with sanctions against Chinese tech companies and individuals. It has also ended Hong Kong’s preferential treatment since Beijing introduced a new security law in July that would allow the Chinese government more control over the city-state and its people.
A reporter is being helped by police and others after spraying pepper spray in Causeway Bay before the annual handover march in Hong Kong. (AP Photo / Vincent Yu)
“Hong Kong is a very complex issue, because we have given them huge sums of money in the form of incentives to make Hong Kong free – to work Hong Kong and to our detriment. That, I have taken all that back “All those incentives they had for the Hong Kong market to keep a certain amount of freedom there, knowing that they have China over the top of them,” Trump said.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO by clicking here
China has sanctioned U.S. lawmakers in exchange if tensions between the two countries escalate.
In addition, U.S. officials ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston in July in an effort to “protect U.S. intellectual property and the private information of Americans” following reports that people were burning papers at the consulate. China, in return, told the US two days later to close its consulate in Chengdu.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FOXBUSINESS
