WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Donald Trump said
that Hong Kong’s global financial center will “go to hell”
under tightened Chinese rule.
“Hong Kong can never succeed having China as opposed to the
thousands of geniuses that ran it, having China run it,” Trump told
Fox Business news. “The Hong Kong markets will go to hell. Nobody’s
going to do business.”
Trump announced in May that he was ending the special US trading
relationship with Hong Kong in retaliation for Beijing’s clampdown on
the previously largely autonomous territory.
Trump told Fox Business that the end to the special status meant
that Hong Kong would lose its ability to attract business and serve as
one of the world’s chief financial hubs, along with New York and
London.
Trump said he had approved of the longstanding relationship, which
amounted to a “tremendous amount of money in the form of incentives to
make Hong Kong free.”
But “once China got aggressive and took it over, I took everything
back. Everything’s back now and it will fail,” he said.
Trump has made a trade war with China, followed by a truce at the
start of this year, a pillar of his foreign policy.
However, hopes for a follow-up “phase two” trade deal that would
resolve some of the underlying issues in the rivalry between the
world’s two largest economies have been dashed by tensions over the
coronavirus pandemic.
Trump has seen his election chances seriously hurt by fallout from
the pandemic and is increasingly focusing blame on China, where the
virus first appeared.
“My mindset has changed on China since they allowed the plague,” he said.
“It’s before plague and after plague. Right now I view China
differently than I did before plague.”
Asked, however, if he agreed with critics that President Xi Jinping
should step aside, he answered: “Look, they’re running their country.
We’re running our country.” — NNN-AGENCIES
