President Trump signed legislation Tuesday to sanction Chinese officials and entities for China’s “repressive actions” against Hong Kong, and issued an executive order ending Hong Kong’s preferential treatment by the U.S.
“No administration has been tougher on China than this administration,” the president said in an event in the White House Rose Garden.
The president recited a long list of China’s transgressions, including the spread of the coronavirus.
“We hold China fully responsible for canceling the virus and unleashing it upon the world,” Mr. Trump said.
He also devoted much of his remarks to contrasting his position on Beijing with his Democratic rival, Joseph R. Biden. The president said Mr. Biden’s “entire career has been a gift to the Chinese Communist Party.”
“Joe Biden supported China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, one of the greatest geopolitical and economic disasters in world history,” Mr. Trump said. “They were given all sorts of advantages… and they took advantage of those advantages.”
A major Trump campaign theme is portraying Mr. Biden as soft on China, and the president took full advantage of his platform in the Rose Garden. He asserted that the U.S. lost 10,000 factories during the Obama administration’s eight years in office due to disastrous trade policies.
“Joe Biden and President Obama freely allowed China to pillage our factories, plunder our communities and steal our most precious secrets,” Mr. Trump said. “Forty-seven years, he [Mr. Biden] never came out against China.”
The Biden campaign accused Mr. Trump of “trying to rewrite his miserable history as president of caving to President Xi [Jinping] and the Chinese government at every turn.”
“But try as he may, Trump can’t hide from a record of weakness and bad deals that consistently put China first and America last,” the Biden campaign said. “Most damning, Trump failed to get tough on China’s government when it mattered most as COVID-19 emerged and spread. Instead of insisting China’s leaders provide information and access to international experts, Trump praised its government’s non-existent cooperation and transparency and mindlessly echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda efforts to downplay the virus.”
Mr. Trump’s largely political remarks came just a few days after his campaign had to cancel a planned rally in New Hampshire; campaign officials blamed the cancellation on a tropical storm.The president again raised his accusations that Mr. Biden’s son Hunter received $1.5 billion in a business deal with China while his father was vice president, and millions from the Burisma energy company in Ukraine.
“But nothing happens, nobody cares,” the president lamented. “Nobody talks about that.”
He pointed to another good day for the U.S. stock market, and said that Mr. Biden on Tuesday was “pushing a platform that would demolish the U.S. economy.”
“He wants to impose massive energy taxes and job-crushing mandates to eliminate carbon from the United States’ economy,” the president said. “He wants to impose the Green New Deal on our country. This will destroy our country and make us non-competitive with other countries.”
