By own party people….
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) declared on Tuesday that China appeared to be “out-negotiating” the Trump administration, arguing that Beijing had secured concessions from the U.S. “without giving up anything meaningful in return.”
“Sadly #China is out-negotiating the administration & winning the trade talks right now,” Rubio tweeted. “They have avoided tariffs & got a #ZTE deal without giving up anything meaningful in return by using N.Korea talks & agriculture issues as leverage. This is #NotWinning.”….
And Democrats, of course….
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says that China’s president “played” President Trump in recent bilateral trade talks where the countries reportedly agreed to an informal deal to lift sanctions from Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Sources familiar with the talks told the Journal that the deal, which is still being negotiated, would include the administration removing the current ban on U.S. companies selling phone components to ZTE.
“If these reports are true, the fines and board changes will do nothing to protect American national or economic security and are simply a diversion from the fact that we have lost,” Schumer said in a statement. “President Xi has played President Trump and Secretary Mnuchin.”….
Trump pushing for his deal with Chinese communications company ZTE that US intelligence agencies say is unsecure and the agreement would bust sanctions imposed by Trump’s own Commerce Dept…..
Commerce notified officials on Capitol Hill of a deal, which will have ZTE pay a bigger fine, hire American compliance officers and replace the firm’s current management team, the source said.
Once those terms are met, the U.S. will lift a denial order, allowing ZTE to start doing business with American companies again, the source said.
President Donald Trump appeared to confirm the outlines of the deal on Twitter on Friday evening when he said that he had shut down the company but “let it reopen” after a series of changes.
“I closed it down then let it reopen with high level security guarantees, change of management and board, must purchase U.S. parts and pay a $1.3 Billion fine,” Trump tweeted…..
More…