US President makes case for 'decoupling' economy from China
Updated : 15:49
America's President made the case for 'decoupling' the US economy from China's and accused his main political rival of being too soft on Beijing.
In remarks made in a speech at the White House marking Labor Day, Donald Trump argued that "We lose billions of dollars and if we didn’t do business with them we wouldn’t lose billions of dollars."
He also took aim at this challenger for the presidency, Joe Biden, saying: "If Biden wins, China wins, because China will own this country."
Trump also promised that if reelected on 3 November, he would prohibit companies from doing business with the US government if they outsource to China and hold Beijing accountable for allowing the spread of Covid-19.
"We will make America into the manufacturing superpower of the world and will end our reliance on China once and for all.
"Whether it’s decoupling, or putting in massive tariffs like I’ve been doing already, we will end our reliance in China, because we can’t rely on China."
Biden's retort was that the Trump administration's much-ballyhooed phase one trade deal with China was "unenforceable", replete with "vague, weak, and recycled commitments from Beijing".