Trump also announced that he had signed an executive order ending U.S. preferential treatment of Hong Kong. It follows up on his announcement in May that he would take steps to revoke the former colony’s status as a customs and travel territory separate from the rest of China.
But an event that was billed as a press conference focused on China quickly devolved into a standard stump speech with Trump railing on a whole host of issues, including former Vice President Joe Biden’s record on China and Biden’s unity platform, which was crafted with former presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
“Joe Biden and President Obama freely allowed China to pillage our factories, plunder our communities and steal our most precious secrets. And I have stopped it largely,” Trump said.
In his hourlong remarks before he took a few questions from reporters, he also went on criticizing the push to remove Confederate statues and his opposition to mail-in voting.
Tensions between the world’s two largest economies have been especially strained in recent months over Trump’s criticism on China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslims and the unclear future of the phase one trade deal.
Trump has repeatedly slammed China over its lack of transparency about the virus. Last week, he indicated that the chances of negotiating a phase two trade deal with China were slim because of the pandemic, telling reporters that the U.S. relationship with China had been “severely damaged.”
In response to a reporter’s question, Trump said he does not have plans to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping after the latest China action.
The new law, which the Senate passed just before heading out of town for the Fourth of July recess, directs the Treasury Department to identify individuals and financial firms that enable the Chinese government to carry out the new security law. Under the bill, those entities would be subject to sanctions, including visa limitations on senior executives and restrictions on dollar transactions.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said China “deplores and rejects” the sanctions bill in a news conference prior to its passage, and warned that attempts to thwart the new security law would be “doomed to fail.”
The Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which received unanimous support in the House and Senate, is the second bill targeting China that Trump has signed into law in the past month, after signing legislation that would pave the way for sanctions of Chinese officials responsible for the country’s crackdown on Uighur Muslims.
It remains to be seen if Trump will fully implement the sanctions. The Trump administration has declined to carry through on several mandatory sanctions over the years, including ones targeting Russia for its interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump, for example, signed into law the recent legislation that sanctions Chinese officials tied to the detention and torture of the Uighurs. But in an accompanying signing statement, the president made clear he would treat a key provision as “advisory and non-binding.”
“He must impose the sanctions included in our bill. That is the only way to ensure that those involved in the crackdown on Hong Kong will feel the full consequences of their actions,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who sponsored the bill with Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).
Still, there’s been a long list of actions against China in recent months tied to its treatment of Hong Kong.
Last week, the Trump administration announced sanctions on three Chinese Communist Party officials over its repression of Uighur Muslims, an ethnic majority in northwest China, and Beijing leveled corresponding sanctions at U.S. lawmakers on Monday.
The Trump administration also announced late last month that it would halt exports of U.S.-origin defense equipment to Hong Kong and take steps to impose new restrictions on shipments of dual-use technologies because of China’s actions to restrict Hong Kong’s autonomy.
In May, Trump said that his administration would take steps to revoke Hong Kong’s preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory apart from the rest of China.
Chinese officials have denied that they intend to eliminate Hong Kong’s limited self rule under the “one country, two systems” principle that has guided relations between Beijing and Hong Kong for more than two decades.
But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said China’s new law, which sets up parallel police and legal systems for the city that are loyal to Beijing and not accountable to local authorities, erodes Hong Kong’s autonomy.
The Chinese law “signals the death of the one country, two systems principle,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier this month.
Caitlin Oprysko contributed to this report.
