REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
One of China’s former top trade officials says that the country wants four more years of Trump in the White House, because of his personality and tweets make him “easy to read,” when it comes to trade negotiations.
“We want Trump to be re-elected; we would be glad to see that happen,” said Long Yongtu, the former vice-minister of foreign trade, said to the South China Morning Post at a conference in Shenzhen on Thursday.
At the event, Long discussed the trade war and how Trump’s daily Twitter feed allows China to gauge his thoughts ahead of talks.
“Trump talks about material interests, not politics,” Long said adding, “Such an opponent is the best choice for negotiations.”
There have been recent signs that the trade war may be thawing, with both sides seemingly agreeing to or at least partially agreeing to a “phase one” deal.
Just last week, China said it has a plan to roll back trade war tariffs with the US, just as the US signaled it might be backing down on trade.
Long, known as being responsible for getting China into the WTO in 2001, has criticized China’s handling of the trade war in the past, saying Beijing had not been thinking “deeply enough.”
“He makes the US decision-making process efficient and transparent, because he basically says what it is,” Long said at Credit Suisse’s China Investment Conference, according to the SCMP. “The pros of [having Trump] outweigh the cons. We don’t need to spend so much time figuring out what Americans want any more, or search for each other’s real thoughts in the dark, like we used to.”
“The trade frictions with China are just part of Trump’s global protectionist strategy,” Long added, according to the SCMP.
