Carmel: US Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Monday alleged that China rebuilt itself from American money and stripped the US in the process.
Lambasting at the Obama administration and Congressional leadership for a lacklustre China policy, Trump said: "So think of China, they've stripped our country and you know, we owe them USD 1.8 trillion, right? Does anybody know that? So they take our jobs, they take our money and we owe them USD 1.8 trillion. That's like a magic act in reverse.”
Addressing his supporters at an election rally in this Indiana city, the real estate mogul added: “Look at China, we have rebuilt China. They have taken so much money out of our country, they have rebuilt. Look at the trade deficit with China, USD 500 billion a year, a year. USD 500 billion, OK? Now, negotiated by fools, I mean, maybe they have a conflict of interest, I don't know, in which case they'd be dishonest, not fools. OK, that would be even worse".
He further condemned the negotiations done for the US by "political hacks" and added: "I've got the greatest business people in the world. They're going to go and make unbelievable deals for us. We are going to turn it around. We are going to take jobs back. And you know, what's to happen, China is going to have more respect for us. They have no respect for us. They think we're a bunch of dummies."
"I've negotiated a lot with China as I've told you. And they come in waves. They don't come with one person, they come with 20 people and every one of them has an 180 IQ. And if one makes mistakes, another one, another one, they have like it's a catch basin. And we'll have some dope sitting there negotiating, and then we wonder why, why we're doing so badly," he said, lashing out at the current political leadership of the US.
"I've got people that are better than anybody. They're the best in the world. They're very rich people, they don't want money, they don't want anything, they want to play the chess game. You know, they like it and they want to play the game," he claimed.
"Those deals are bigger than any corporate deal. A deal like that, trade with China, you can take all your steel companies, everything else, and put them together, it's like a peanut compared to it. These people would love to do it and they want to do it for their ego. They actually love the country. Some of these guys are you know, not the nicest people and some are fantastic people," he said.
Indiana has lost one in four manufacturing jobs since 2001, the year Congress voted to put China into the World Trade Organisation, he said, terming the move as a "mistake".
"The vote gave China permanent, most favoured nation trading status. That gives them an advantage. Why? What are we doing? Why? And I do a lot of business with China. And I love China. China's fine," he said.
Trump said if elected as the US president, he would open up the American coal mine. "We're going to open up our coal industry and we have miners that are incredible people," he said.
Stating that China has no respect for America, he lashed out at the US President for offering Chinese leaders state dinner. "Their leaders come in. We give them state dinners at the White House. And I said, don't do that. Let them come in to negotiate? What are you doing? I actually jokingly said, let us take them to a McDonald's, we'll have McDonald's and we'll get back to negotiations. Seriously. What are we doing?" he asked.
(With PTI inputs)
