Trump, Aiming to Coax Xi Jinping, Bets on Flattery<br />BEIJING — President Trump heaped praise on President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday, blaming past American administrations for China’s yawning trade surplus with the United States<br />and saying he was confident that Mr. Xi could defuse the threat from North Korea.<br />Far from attacking Mr. Xi on trade, Mr. Trump saluted him for leading a country<br />that he said had left the United States “so far behind.” He said he could not blame the Chinese for taking advantage of weak American trade policy.<br />At the end of his appearance with Mr. Xi, an American reporter asked whether Mr. Trump still believed, as he once said,<br />that China was “raping” the United States through unfair trade practices.<br />Since his election, President Trump has gone from hammering China on trade policy<br />to praising President Xi Jinping for his country’s response to North Korea.<br />Mr. Trump’s warm words, on a state visit to China replete with ceremony but short of tangible results, showed a president doubling down on his gamble<br />that by cultivating a personal connection with Mr. Xi, he can push the Chinese leader to take meaningful steps on North Korea and trade.<br />“I told the president that the Pacific is big enough to accommodate both China and the United States,” Mr. Xi said, after reciting his well-worn line<br />that the two countries could peacefully coexist if they respected each other’s different political systems.<br />Mr. Trump, officials said, asked Mr. Xi to cut off oil shipments, to shut down North Korean bank accounts,<br />and to send home tens of thousands of North Koreans who work in China.
