US President Donald Trump on Friday clarified that he did not cancel his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping after his recent remarks about having “no reason to meet Xi” had triggered speculations about the two leaders’ upcoming meeting.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said he had not officially cancelled the meeting with Xi, but expressed his shock at China’s new export restrictions requiring export licenses for rare earth elements.
“No, I haven’t cancelled. However, I’m not sure if we’ll have it. I’ll be there regardless. I would assume we might have it. However, they hit the world with something. It was shocking. Out of the blue, they came up with this whole import-export concept, and nobody knew anything about it,” he told reporters at the White House.
Reacting to China’s restrictions, Trump had earlier said that he saw no need to meet Xi Jinping after Beijing took “very hostile” steps.
“This was a real surprise, not only to me, but to all the Leaders of the Free World. I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” he said.
Trump imposes 100% tariffs on China
Trump had also warned of taking countermeasures against China’s latest rare earth move.
“Dependent on what China says about the hostile “order” that they have just put out, I will be forced, as President of the United States of America, to financially counter their move,” he said.
Later in the day, the US President announced a 100% additional tariff on Beijing effective from November 1.
On being asked about whether the US will revoke the additional tariffs on China if the latter rolls back the restrictions, Trump said, “We’ll have to see what happens. That’s why I made it November 1.”
He added that the US was considering export controls on a range of items beyond software, including aircraft parts. “A lot more. We have aeroplanes and their parts. We were just surprised by China. I have a very good relationship with President Xi, and they did that. This is not something that I instigated. This was just a response to something that they did. And they didn’t really aim it at us. They aimed it at the whole world. I thought it was very, very bad,” he said.
