China must stop stealing American innovation, Kellyanne Conway says

Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway said on Sunday that while President Trump has made progress on trade with China, particularly in the last 24 hours, the country must stop stealing American innovation.

“This is more than a buying mission,” Conway told Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.” “This also has to do with the 301s – Amb. [Robert] Lighthizer has been very, very upfront about how the tech transfers, the stealing of our innovation, our intellectual property, really the stealing of our future innovation as well. That has to stop.”

The U.S. and China will begin to take steps to reduce the more than $370 billion trade deficit between the two countries, with China agreeing to purchase more U.S. goods and services as part of the deal.

“We have made very meaningful progress, and we agreed on a framework,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re putting the trade war on hold.”

Tensions have been cooling as of late, with Trump instructing the U.S. Commerce Department last week to help Chinese telecom giant ZTE – which had suspended its main operations after the administration banned U.S. businesses from providing it with supplies after it was found to have violated restrictions on U.S. exports – get “back into business, fast.”

Still, Washington and Beijing have previously threatened to impose tens of billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs on each other’s exports. The U.S. and China boast the world’s largest economies, with nominal GDPs of nearly $19.4 trillion and approximately $12 trillion, respectively.

Representatives from the two nations held trade talks earlier this month, with the U.S. demanding China cut its trade surplus by $200 billion, sharply lower tariffs and advance technology subsidies.

Conway also said the meeting with Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is still on the table, despite recent threats by Pyongyang to withdraw from the peacemaking summit.

“Obviously North Korea had a problem this week with South Korea – we’re monitoring that,” Conway said. “But we’ve received no specific information that would make us think that we should stand down at this moment on forging ahead with that June 12 summit.”