Trump’s tweet regarding helping China telecoms company ZTE prompted bipartisan criticism and concerns on his softening stance. Republican Senator Marco Rubio said he hoped “this isn’t the beginning of backing down to China.” Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer said “this leads to the greatest worry, which is that the president will back off on what China fears most – a crackdown on intellectual property theft – in exchange for buying some goods in the short run.”
On the other hand, Trump defended with another tweet saying that “ZTE, the large Chinese phone company, buys a big percentage of individual parts from U.S. companies. This is also reflective of the larger trade deal we are negotiating with China and my personal relationship with President Xi”.
