Trump, Aiming to Coax Xi Jinping, Bets on Flattery
BEIJING — President Trump heaped praise on President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday, blaming past American administrations for China’s yawning trade surplus with the United States
and saying he was confident that Mr. Xi could defuse the threat from North Korea.
Far from attacking Mr. Xi on trade, Mr. Trump saluted him for leading a country
that he said had left the United States “so far behind.” He said he could not blame the Chinese for taking advantage of weak American trade policy.
At the end of his appearance with Mr. Xi, an American reporter asked whether Mr. Trump still believed, as he once said,
that China was “raping” the United States through unfair trade practices.
Since his election, President Trump has gone from hammering China on trade policy
to praising President Xi Jinping for his country’s response to North Korea.
Mr. Trump’s warm words, on a state visit to China replete with ceremony but short of tangible results, showed a president doubling down on his gamble
that by cultivating a personal connection with Mr. Xi, he can push the Chinese leader to take meaningful steps on North Korea and trade.
“I told the president that the Pacific is big enough to accommodate both China and the United States,” Mr. Xi said, after reciting his well-worn line
that the two countries could peacefully coexist if they respected each other’s different political systems.
Mr. Trump, officials said, asked Mr. Xi to cut off oil shipments, to shut down North Korean bank accounts,
and to send home tens of thousands of North Koreans who work in China.
