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WASHINGTON-President Trump's senior trade adviser, Peter Navarro, China's excoriated and attacked Goldman Sachs and Wall Street as Beijing's "unpaid foreign agents" who are weakening the U.S. leader before his meeting with China's president.
Mr. Navarro spoke, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis with their Chinese counterparts to try to mend fences with Beijing, while discussing North Korea, Iran, the South China Sea and trade.
They emerged with a consensus on some issues and differences on others.
The mixed messages reflect bitter tensions in the Trump administration about how to approach China.
Mr. Navarro and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer are deeply skeptical that China will make the types of transactions sought by the Trump administration and urge additional tariffs.
Other officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, have been trying to line up a deal. Mr. Trump sometimes favors one group and sometimes the other.
As a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 meeting in Buenos Aires, the economic council is coordinating what kind of trade deal the U.S. might accept from China. U.S. firms form joint ventures to operate in China.
. U.S. firms form joint ventures to operate in China.
Mr. Navarro is pushing for a hard line on the talks, but made his position in an unusually personal terms.
"If Wall Street is involved and continues to insinuate itself in these negotiations, it is going to be stuck around any deal that is consummated because it will have the imprimatur of Goldman Sachs and Wall Street," Mr. Navarro said in a conversation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington think tank. He did not provide any evidence to back up his claims. A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. spokesman declined to comment.
Mr. Navarro also trained his rhetoric on Mr. Xi, who said to have failed to meet the Obama administration on the demilitarizing of the South China Sea and ending cyber hacking of U.S. firms. He referred to a "high-ranking member of the Chinese government," in his address, but his description only made Mr. Xi.
A senior White House official said Mr. Navarro did not speak for the administration or Mr. Trump. "It's the president who rejuvenated the China negotiations" when he called Mr. Xi on Nov. 1, he said. Mr. Navarro "is freelancing; he's speaking for himself. "
The security dialogue, initiated last year by Messrs. Trump and Xi, aims to boost cooperation between the two powers. Mr. Trump often refers to Mr. Xi as a friend and others in the administration rarely criticizes him personally, as a way to create political space for potential deals.
"This was an incredibly productive conversation," Mr. Pompeo said after the meeting in Washington with senior Communist Party official Yang Jiechi and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe. "The United States is not pursuing a Cold War or containment policy with China, rather we want to make sure that China acts responsibly and fairly."
The two sides said that they would strengthen their commitment to complete the nucleation of the Korean Peninsula and discussed Iran's nuclear activities.
The two sides said that they would strengthen their commitment to complete the nucleation of the Korean Peninsula and discussed Iran's nuclear activities. But Mr. Pompeo said there remained significant South China Sea Islands, China's policy towards Taiwan and human rights.
Mr. Pompeo did not address trade issues but senior Communist Party official Yang Jiechi suggested they discussed the subject, noting that a trade is not good for either side. On trade, the fight appears to be as much within the U.S. administration as with China.
Mr. Navarro, in his talk, took a subtle jab at his main adversary, Mr. Mnuchin, who has tried to sideline Mr. Navarro and arranges talks with Beijing. Mr. Navarro said, "You are not in good hands when negotiations get outside" of Messrs. Trump and Lighthizer.
Mr. Navarro lashed out at what he called "a self-appointed group of Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers" who he described as "globalist billionaires."
"The mission of these unregistered foreign agents-that's what they are; they are unregistered foreign agents-is to pressure this president into some kind of deal, "Mr. Navarro said.
While privately against U.S. executives. For example, Blackstone Group LP CEO Stephen Schwarzman, are friends of the president and speak to him frequently.
Others including former Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Hank Paulson, who was President Bush's Treasury Secretary, consults with Mr. Mnuchin. Mr. Schwarzman declined to comment. A spokesperson for Mr. Paulson did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. complains that Beijing has not given a formal proposal, while China says it needs to meet again, before the summit.
While the administration is refining what it wants to do, it also wants to negotiate bottom line-it is also lining up additional tariffs should negotiations stall. So far, the U.S. has taken tariffs on $ 250 billion in Chinese goods, about half what China sends to the United States of America, the levies on $ 200 billion of goods are scheduled to increase to 25% on Jan. 1 from the current 10%.
The administration is also putting the finishing touches on the future of Chinese imports, said the senior White House official. It would be better to have more mobile phones and possibly laptops, to reduce the chances of a higher price increase.
Write to Bob Davis at [email protected] and Gordon Lubold at [email protected]
