"You tell me": the Chinese ambassador has dropped Trump on the trade | Business

The Chinese ambassador to the United States said Sunday that his diplomats in Washington did not know which advisors Donald Trump would turn to form a trade policy.

On Sunday, Fox News asked Cui Tiankai whether he thought the president was being guided by moderates or extremists.

"You tell me," he replied.

"Honestly, I've talked to ambassadors from other countries in Washington and that's also part of their problem."

Diplomats, said Cui, "do not know who the ultimate decision maker is. Of course, the president will probably make the final decision. But who plays what role? Sometimes it can be very confusing.

Cui could have sought the advice of another guest of the same show, Trump's chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, a former free-trader who now follows the official line.

When asked if the United States and China were on the brink of a "cold war," Mr. Kudlow told Fox that he had been "very involved in trade negotiations." with China ". He could also have spoken to Cui when he added, "These discussions were not satisfying."

The confrontation with Beijing has long been at the heart of Trump's worldview, especially since Steve Bannon, a fierce Chinese hawk, gave his opinion on White House politics.

Bannon has left Trump's orbit, but another key assistant, the director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, Peter Navarro, is an extremely loyalist price defender who seems to have the ear of the president.

S addressing Bloomberg in March, he said, "My job, as an economist, is to try to provide the underlying analyzes that confirm [Trump’s] intuition. And his intuition is always right on these issues. "

In an article published this week by Fox, Navarro associated policies to protect US companies from the emergence of China as a major military threat.

The US Trade Representative is Robert Lighthizer. Politico said this month that he was implementing "a clear but extremely risky battle plan to crush China."