WASHINGTON—Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei called GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump an “irrational type” and said the U.S. “wouldn’t be entitled to world leadership” if it followed Mr. Trump’s proposed trade policies toward China.
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Mr. Lou, known in China for his bluff outspokenness, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that such a tariff would violate World Trade Organization rules. Under those conditions, he said, the U.S. wouldn’t be entitled to its position as the world’s major power.
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In a statement from his campaign, Mr. Trump charged that China was “in total violation of WTO regulations” and that the U.S. “has incompetently allowed them to get away with this” and has failed to impose “equal or greater taxes and tariffs” on China.
