Washington: President Donald Trump said that there was a “very good chemistry” between him and Chinese President Xi Jinping as he assured that US would not label China a currency manipulator and offered to have a good trade deal if Beijing helped to tackle the threat of North Korea.
“President Xi wants to do the right thing. We had a very good bonding... I think he wants to help us with North Korea. We talked trade... a lot of things,” Mr Trump said at a joint news conference on Wednesday with NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg at the White House.
Mr Trump had spent two days with Mr Xi at his Mar a-Lago resort in Florida and spoke to him over phone a day earlier.
“I said, the way you’re going to make a good trade deal is to help us with North Korea. Otherwise, we’re just going to go it alone,” Mr Trump said referring to the latest telephonic conversation with the Chinese President.
“But going it alone means going it with lots of other nations,” he said.
Mr Trump said he was “very impressed” with Mr Xi. “I think he means well, and I think he wants to help. We’ll see whether or not he does.”
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr Trump said the US had “tremendous trade deficits” with everybody, but the big one was with China.
“It’s hundreds of billions of dollars for many many years... Now, I did say — but you want to make a great deal? Solve the problem in North Korea,” he said.
In a reversal from his previous stand, Mr Trump said he would not label China a currency manipulator.
“Mr Trump said the reason he changed his mind was China had not been manipulating its currency for months and that step now could jeopardise talks with Beijing on confronting the threat of North Korea,” the report said.
