On the heels of trade war truce with China, Trump says “we're always watching them”

Just days after touting a trade truce with China, President Trump acknowledged that China is “always watching us.”

American intelligence agencies say the Chinese have infiltrated parts of the U.S. power grid and water systems. China has also been accused of stealing American intellectual property and Americans’ personal information. 

“We’re a threat to them, too. Many of the things that you say, we do to them,” Mr. Trump said. “Look, this is a very competitive world, especially when it comes to China and the U.S. And we’re always watching them, and they’re always watching us. In the meantime, I think we get along very well, and I think we can be bigger, better, and stronger by working with them as opposed to just knocking them out.”

China’s testing nuclear weapons, Trump says, “You just don’t know about it”

Before Mr. Trump met with China’s President Xi Jinping last week, he wrote on Truth Social that he’d instructed the Department of War “to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis” with other countries. 

He told 60 Minutes he’d discussed doing something about denuclearization with Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Are you saying that after more than 30 years, the United States is going to start detonating nuclear weapons for testing?” O’Donnell asked. 

“I’m saying that we’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do,” Mr. Trump replied. “Russia’s testing, and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it.” 

Vice Adm. Richard Correll, who was nominated by Mr. Trump to lead U.S. Strategic Command, recently told Congress that neither Russia nor China was conducting nuclear explosive tests. Mr. Trump suggested otherwise. 

“Russia’s testing, and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it,” he said. 

U.S.-China trade deal 

During the meeting, Mr. Trump and Xi struck a one-year trade deal that, for now, averts the escalating tension between the two economic superpowers. Mr. Trump told us that in exchange for lower tariffs, China agreed to sell the U.S. its valuable rare earth minerals — and to start buying American agricultural products again.

The earth minerals are needed by the U.S. for everything from smartphones to submarines. 

“The power they have is rare earth because of the fact that they’ve been accumulating it and really taking care of it for a period of 25, 30 years. Other countries haven’t,” Mr. Trump said. “They use that against us, and we used other things against them. For instance, airplane parts. That’s a big deal. They have hundreds of Boeing airplanes. We wouldn’t give them parts. We were both acting maybe a little bit irrationally, but the big thing we had was tariffs ultimately.”

Trump says Taiwan “never came up” in meeting with China’s Xi

Taiwan has been an ongoing flashpoint in U.S.-China relations. The Chinese military is encroaching on Taiwan’s sea lanes, its airspace and its cyberspace.

Mr. Trump said he and Xi didn’t broach the issue during their meeting. 

“People were a little surprised at that. He never brought it up, because he understands it, and he understands it very well,” Mr. Trump said. 

60 Minutes contributing correspondent Norah O’Donnell asked whether Mr. Trump would order U.S. forces to defend Taiwan should Xi move militarily on the island, something the American president has insisted China would not do as long as he is in office. Mr. Trump said he can’t give away his secrets, but that “they understand what’s going to happen.”

“He has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘We would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Mr. Trump said of China.