"טראמפ מאמין ש"יסתדר" עם שי ג'ין-פינג אך קורא ל"הדדיות

President-elect Trump saying he will be able to deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping once taking office, adding that China needs the US badly because its economy is struggling. In an interview with talk show host Hugh Hewitt, Trump said he had had a great relationship with Xi until COVID-19 broke out. Trump said he believes he and Xi will probably get along very well, but he said it has to be a two-way street, adding that China is ripping off the US by $1 trillion a year. Trump also touched on the damage from the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in Wuhan, China. He said the virus that came out of the Wuhan labs cost $60 trillion in worldwide damage and millions and millions of lives, adding, quote, it's a bridge too far. It's unclear if the virus that causes COVID-19 actually came from a lab in Wuhan called the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Trump also added that he and China's Xi have been talking through representatives. Trump noted he intends to rebuild the US Navy. He said China's knocking out one ship every four days and that the US has been sitting back and watching. Zooming out, the US and China are vying for dominance in a number of sectors. One of them is shipbuilding capacity, an area where the US has seen a dramatic decline in shipbuilding and lost its status as the world's biggest shipbuilder. Today, the US accounts for one tenth of one percent of global shipbuilding, while Chinese shipyards with nearly 20 percent of their operating costs subsidized by Beijing accounts for 54 percent. For every 359 large container ships China builds, we are building one. That is not a typo. China operates the world's largest navy with 370 ships and submarines. The US has fewer than 300 ships.