By David Brunnstrom
and Christian
Shepherd | WASHINGTON/BEIJING
U.S. President Donald Trump
set the tone for a tense first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next
week by tweeting on Thursday that the United States could no longer tolerate
massive trade deficits and job losses.
The White House said Trump
would host Xi next Thursday and Friday at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida. It
said Trump and his wife, Melania, would host Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at a
dinner next Thursday.
In a tweet on Thursday
evening, Trump said the highly anticipated meeting between the leaders of the
world's two largest economies, which is also expected to cover differences over
North Korea and China's strategic ambitions in the South China Sea, "will
be a very difficult one."
"We can no longer have
massive trade deficits and job losses," he wrote, adding in apparent
reference to U.S. firms manufacturing in China: "American companies must
be prepared to look at other alternatives."
Despite a string of
U.S.-China meetings and conversations that have appeared aimed at mending ties
after strong criticism of China by Trump during his election campaign, U.S.
officials have said the Republican president will not pull his punches in the
meeting.
General Electric Co Chief
Executive Officer Jeff Immelt urged Trump on Thursday to maintain the country's
economic relationship with China, saying the United States had much to gain
from globalization.
"The country loses if
we don't trade. The relationship with China is key," Immelt told an
aviation panel hosted by industry group the Wings Club. "If you give up on
trade, you give up on the best lever that the president of the United States
has in negotiating around the world. I just think that President Trump is too
smart to give up on that."
The U.S. Commerce Department
said earlier that Beijing must change its trade practices and the way its state
enterprises operate.
"China and others need
to realize the games are over – continuing their unfair trade practices and
operation as a non-market economy will have serious consequences,” it said.
The department said it was
launching a new review of China’s status as a non-market economy, which allows
the United States to maintain high anti-dumping duties on cheap Chinese
imports, but the designation is widely expected to remain in place.
Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesman Lu Kang stressed the need to see the big picture while fostering
mutual trade interests.
"The market dictates
that interests between our two countries are structured so that you will always
have me and I will always have you," he told a regular briefing.
"Both sides should work
together to make the cake of mutual interest bigger and not simply seek fairer
distribution."
'BIG ISSUES'
Trump administration
officials say the need for China to do more to rein in the nuclear and missile
programs of its neighbor and ally North Korea will top the agenda, along with
trade. The U.S. side is also expected to criticize Beijing for its pursuit of
expansive claims in the South China Sea.
White House spokesman Sean
Spicer told a news briefing the meeting would be an opportunity for Trump
"to develop a relationship in person with President Xi."
"He's spoken to him on
the phone a few times, but we have big problems ... everything from the South
China Sea, to trade, to North Korea. There are big issues of national and
economic security that need to get addressed."
Asked if the administration
had a vision, or a description for its China policy like the "pivot"
or "rebalance" to Asia touted by former President Barack Obama,
Spicer said: "Right now we're not worried so much about slogans as much as
progress.
"There's a lot of big
things that we need to accomplish with China, and I think that we will - we
will work on them."
U.S. Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson agreed in Beijing this month to work with China on North Korea and
stressed Trump's desire to enhance understanding.
China has been irritated at
being told repeatedly by Washington to rein in North Korea's nuclear and
missile programs, or face U.S. sanctions on Chinese businesses trading with
North Korea, and by the U.S. decision to base an advanced missile defense
system in South Korea.
Beijing is also deeply
suspicious of U.S. intentions toward self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as
its own, after Trump, as president-elect, broke with decades of U.S. policy by
taking a phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and saying Washington
did not have to stick to a "one China" policy.
Trump later agreed in a
phone call with Xi to honor the long-standing policy and has also written to
him since seeking "constructive ties."
(Reporting by Christian
Shepherd in Beijing and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Additional reporting by
Matt Spetalnick and D
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