AP Photo/Andy Wong
- President Donald Trump suggested Friday he could veto bipartisan legislation that outlined US support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
- The comments underscored how efforts to resolve a more than yearlong trade dispute with China have rippled through American foreign policy.
- Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have overwhelmingly urged the president to support the legislation.
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President Donald Trump suggested Friday he could veto bipartisan legislation that outlined support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, underscoring how efforts to resolve a more than yearlong trade dispute with China have rippled through American foreign policy.
The measure was passed with veto-proof majorities in Congress this week, suggesting White House opposition would ultimately be symbolic. The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act passed the House with just one vote against it Wednesday, a day after unanimous approval in the Senate.
“We have to stand with Hong Kong, but I’m also standing with President Xi. He’s a friend of mine, an incredible guy,” Trump said in an interview with Fox and Friends. “I stand with freedom. I stand with all of the things that I want to do. But we are also in the process of making one of the largest trade deals in history.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have overwhelmingly urged the president to support the legislation, which would impose sanctions on Chinese officials involved in a violent crackdown on demonstrators in the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong. But China has warned the human rights bill could imperil efforts to defuse the trade tensions that have rattled the economy ahead of Trump’s re-election bid.
The US and China announced the first stage of an interim trade agreement in October, but it has not yet been signed or even put to paper. The two sides have appeared increasingly divided over key issues since then, dimming hopes that they would be able to make concrete progress before the end of the year.
Trump regularly wavers between optimism toward a deal and renewed escalation of threats toward China. He has said repeatedly in recent weeks that tariffs would be increased if the agreement wasn’t finalized. On December 15, tariffs are scheduled to be increased to virtually all imports from that country.
President Xi Jinping said earlier Friday that China wanted to defuse trade tensions with the US, but added that the country would retaliate against any further escalations. Those were the first comments Xi has made about the trade dispute since the two sides reached a so-called phase-one accord in October.
“When necessary we will fight back, but we have been working actively to try not to have a trade war,” Xi said at an international forum in Beijing, according to a pool report cited by Reuters. “We did not initiate this trade war, and this is not something we want.”
Xi, who rarely offers public comments on the subject, said he wanted to work toward that “on the basis of mutual respect and equality.”
