US President Donald Trump said that he had offered Chinese President Xi Jinping to buy oil from the United States and the Chinese leader expressed his willingness to discuss the idea.
„I said: „I would like you to buy oil from Texas and Louisiana, from Alaska. We have a lot of it“, Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “And he said he liked the idea and would like to discuss it.“
Trump said China intends to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in American companies.
Commenting on a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and a large delegation of CEOs of major American companies, the American leader said “these people came to make deals and bring jobs back to the United States“.
“China intends to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the businesses of the people who were in this room today. That's why they came“, the American leader said.
“They will open the market gradually. Xi Jinping takes care of his country and protects it“.
Trump is visiting China from May 13 to 15. More talks between the US and Chinese leaders are scheduled for Friday. The US president is accompanied by the leaders of 16 major US companies, including Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Boeing President Kelly Ortberg, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
After meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump said that Xi Jinping was completely focused on the issue and "not inclined to play games".
“He is a warm person, but he is also completely focused on the issues - he does not play games. There is no talk of good weather, stars and sunshine; he is completely focused. And I like that; that's good“, said the American leader.
Trump said that the United States and China are conducting intelligence activities against each other in the technology industry.
In response to a question about the alleged theft of American intellectual property by China, the US president noted that he had discussed the topic in a recent interview with CBS News. “The anchor asked me a question, and she was talking about China, about how they steal things from us, and I said, “We do that too. They spy on us. And we spy on them,“, said Trump.
“We do some things and they do other things. That's the way it is. But I had a very serious conversation with their president about it, and I would like to see how he takes care of it,“, said the American leader. "They've been doing this for 50 years," he said.
Trump says Tehran must make a deal with Washington or face destruction.
"It's just a matter of time. If we wanted to, we could have gone on for a few more weeks and it would have been over. I stopped it at the request of many leaders who have good relations with them," the president said.
"But that won't change anything for them; they're done for. "They can either make a deal or get destroyed," Trump said.
Trump said on Truth Social that US military action against Iran would continue.
Discussing the progress of talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump, who is on a state visit to Beijing, said the Chinese leader had congratulated him on the successes achieved during his second presidential term. Trump cited his administration's achievements as "the military victory over Venezuela, the flourishing relationship with it and the military destruction of Iran," adding that "this will continue."
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with NBC, quoted by BTA, that Washington hopes for a positive response from China to US calls for the release of imprisoned media mogul Jimmy Lai and others.
Rubio said that Trump also asked Xi Jinping about 78-year-old Jimmy Lai, whose case has become a symbol of Beijing's crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong, a former British colony that has been returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
China has described Lai, a prominent critic of the ruling Communist Party, as the "mastermind" of the pro-democracy protests that rocked Hong Kong for months in 2019.
"The president always raises this case and a few others, and obviously we hope to get a positive response from this," Rubio told NBC. He did not directly answer a question about whether Lai could go to the United States if he were released by Chinese authorities. "We would be open to any arrangement that would be appropriate for them, as long as he is given freedom," Rubio said.