They'll Never Be Able to Catch Us, Says Trump on China's Economy; Accuses Country of Taking Advantage of WTO

Washington: Reiterating that China has taken advantage of the US and the World Trade Organisation, President Donald Trump on Wednesday asserted that their economy is not doing good because of his trade and tariff actions.

"They're having their worst year in many, many decades. They're having a supply chain that's being absolutely fractured and broken, which is very bad for them," Trump told reporters at the White House in response to a question.

"They've lost three million jobs, and the jobs are moving to Vietnam and other places, including the United States, by the way. Some people are just making the product here," he said.

Even as he has raised fresh tariffs on import of Chinese products, the Trump Administration continues to hold talks with the Chinese to hammer out a comprehensive trade deal. Two of the top US Senators David Perdue and Steve Daines have just returned from China after having meetings with their top leadership.

"They told me the attitude of China, and I think, basically, they said that China would like to do something. I know they'd like to do something," Trump said.

Trump asserted as a result of his policies the US has created tremendous wealth in this country since he was elected.

"Had my opponent won, within two years, in my opinion — maybe less — China would've been a bigger economy than the United States. Now we're so far ahead of them, it'll take them years to catch. And if we always have competent people sitting here, they'll never be able to catch us," he said.

"We have a springboard. It's amazing what has happened. And let me tell you: if I wanted to do nothing with China, my stock market — our stock market — would be 10,000 points higher than it is right now. But somebody had to do this. To me, this is much more important than the economy. Somebody had to do this. We had to do it with China. It had to be done," he said.

Trump said China will make a deal, if they want. "If they don't want to make a deal, that's fine. But I can tell you: They're having one of the worst — I guess, the worst on record, and they want to make a deal. And if I were them, I'd want to make a deal, too. But we'll see what happens," he said.