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'Breathtaking' China talks

Trump at various times lost faith in Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin amid China trade negotiations with President Xi Jinping, according to Bolton's book.

"Mnuchin fretted constantly about how this or that prosecution for hacking or other cybercrimes would have a negative effect on the trade negotiations, which Trump sometimes bought and sometimes didn't," Bolton writes. "At one point, he said to Mnuchin, 'Steve, the Chinese see fear in your eyes. That's why I don't want you negotiating with them.'"

Elsewhere in the manuscript, Bolton accuses the president of soliciting foreign election help during a June 29, 2019 meeting with Xi in Osaka, Japan.

"Xi told Trump that the U.S.-China relationship was the most important in the world. He said that some (unnamed) American political figures were making erroneous judgments by calling for a new Cold War with China," Bolton writes. "Whether Xi meant to finger the Democrats or some of us sitting on the U.S. side of the table, I don't know, but Trump immediately assumed that Xi meant the Democrats."

That's when, according to Bolton, the conversation took a troubling turn.

"Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China's economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win," Bolton writes. "He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump's exact words, but the government's prepublication review process has decided otherwise."

The president then urged China to "buy as many American farm products as China could," Bolton says, and "Xi agreed that we should restart the trade talks, welcoming Trump's concession that there would be no new tariffs and agreeing that the two negotiating teams should resume discussions on farm products on a priority basis."

Bolton also writes: "Xi had explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang. According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. The National Security Council's top Asia staffer, Matthew Pottinger, told me that Trump said something very similar during his November 2017 trip to China."

Contrary to his public image of being tough on China, Bolton asserts, the president was deferential to Xi.

"There were no winners in the trade war, said Xi, so we should eliminate the current tariffs, or at least agree there would be no new tariffs," the book reads. "I feared at that moment that Trump would simply say yes to everything Xi had laid out. He came close, unilaterally offering that US tariffs would remain at 10 percent rather than rise to 25 percent as he had threatened. In exchange, Trump asked merely for some increases in farm-product purchases (to help with the critical farm-state vote.) If that could be agreed, all the tariffs would be reduced. Intellectual property was left to be worked out at some unspecified point. ... It was breathtaking."

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Posted by Erin Burnett to Trang Ánh Nam at June 18, 2020 at 7:00 PM