WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump lashed out at China on Tuesday morning as trade talks between the two nations resumed, taking credit for weakening China's economy and downplaying the likelihood of a deal before the 2020 election.
The president's comments, in posts on Twitter and remarks to the press, came as his top negotiators were sitting down to dinner with their counterparts at the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai. While both sides are trying to get trade talks back on track, Trump's words underscored the diminishing prospects for a transformative trade deal anytime soon and the extent to which the bilateral relationship has not unfolded in the way that Trump expected.
"I think the biggest problem to a trade deal is China would love to wait and just hope," the president said. "They hope - it's not going to happen, I hope, but they would just love if I got defeated so they could deal with somebody like Elizabeth Warren or Sleepy Joe Biden or any of these people, because then they'd be allowed and able to continue to rip off our country like they've been doing for the last 30 years."
Trump's anger was fueled, in part, by the fact that China has not begun buying large amounts of U.S. farm products, which the president promised farmers would happen after a June meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
China "was supposed to start buying our agricultural product now - no signs that they are doing so," Trump tweeted. "That is the problem with China, they just don't come through."
His comments Tuesday appeared to be an effort to give his negotiators more leverage and to pressure China into making concessions in talks this week.
Stocks dipped Tuesday, partly as investors grew nervous about a prolonged trade war between the world's two largest economies. The S&P 500 was down 0.3%.
Negotiators from both countries will try to bridge their divisions as talks begin in earnest in Shanghai on Wednesday. But the deep divisions between the countries suggest another protracted round of talks may be needed before any agreement can be reached.