China would obliterate Hong Kong 'in 14 minutes' if not for me – Trump

US President Trump, speaking on Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends," says he had saved the restive autonomous city from being destroyed by persuading Chinese president against troop deployment there.

US President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony to award the National Medal of Arts and National Medal of Humanities in the East room of the White House on November 21, 2019.
AFP

US President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony to award the National Medal of Arts and National Medal of Humanities in the East room of the White House on November 21, 2019.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he had saved Hong Kong from being destroyed by persuading Chinese President Xi Jinping to hold off on sending in troops to crush its anti-Beijing movement.

"If it weren't for me, Hong Kong would have been obliterated in 14 minutes," Trump said in a scattershot early morning interview with Fox News.

Trump's comments come as he mulls signing congressionally approved legislation in support of the anti-Beijing activists — or bow to Beijing's threats of retaliation if the laws pass.

Asked whether he would veto the legislation, green-lit by an overwhelming margin in Congress on Wednesday, Trump equivocated.

"I'll tell you we have to stand with Hong Kong but I'm also standing with President Xi. He is a friend of mine. He is an incredible guy," Trump said.

"I would like to see them work it out. We have to see them work it out," he added.

Trade deal

Trump cast his relationship with Xi as the bulwark keeping China from moving against the anti-Beijing movement that has rocked Hong Kong during almost six months of increasingly violent protests.

He added that a "million soldiers standing outside of Hong Kong are not going only because I asked him, 'Please don't do that. You will be making a big mistake. It will have a tremendous negative impact on the trade deal.'"

Trump acknowledged that the tension over the former British colony — handed back to China in 1997 — has complicated efforts to strike a trade deal with Beijing, a source of economic uncertainty as Washington heads into an election year.

US and Chinese trade negotiators are "potentially very close" to a deal, he said.

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