President Trump on Thursday warned Britain and Canada against boosting trade with China, which several Western leaders have visited in recent months to hedge against their increasingly volatile relationships with the United States.
“It’s very dangerous for them to do that,” Mr. Trump, referring to Britain, told reporters in Washington outside a screening of a documentary about the first lady, Melania Trump.
“It’s even more dangerous, I think, for Canada to get into business with China,” Mr. Trump later said. “Canada’s not doing well, they’re doing very poorly. And you can’t look at China as the answer.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain arrived in Shanghai on Friday for the last leg of a three-day trip aimed at drumming up business with Beijing. His Canadian counterpart, Mark Carney, also made a recent high-profile trip to China, as some U.S. allies try to diversify their trading relationships and reduce reliance on the United States.
Mr. Starmer is the first British leader since 2018 to visit China, which has the world’s second largest economy. On Thursday, he met with Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and hailed the benefits of cooperation, while Mr. Xi sought to depict China as a reliable global power.
During his own trip to Beijing earlier this month, Mr. Carney said Canada would lower tariffs on some Chinese electric vehicles, a major shift in policy and a break with the United States. China in turn offered to do the same for Canadian canola products.
Mr. Trump, who described Mr. Xi as “a friend,” suggested that Canada would likely have to give up playing ice hockey if it wanted to deal with China, although he did not explain why that would be.
“The first thing they’re going to do is say, ‘You’re not allowed to play ice hockey anymore,’” he said. “That’s not good, Canada’s not going to like that.”
Mr. Trump has strained relations with traditional U.S. allies in recent months. Though he walked back threats to impose tariffs on Britain and other European countries unless the United States was allowed to acquire Greenland, his takeover bid has rattled Europe.
Mr. Trump has also opened a rift between the United States and Canada, partly over trade disputes and partly with his repeated threats to annex Canada and make it the 51st U.S. state.
In a speech last week in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Carney said there had been a “rupture” of Europe’s long reliance on American hegemony. Since then, Mr. Trump has taken a number of swipes at Mr. Carney and Canada. On Thursday, he threatened to restrict the use of Canadian-built aircraft in the United States because of a dispute involving American-made business jets.
Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
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