President Trump acknowledged on Sunday that China “spies” on the United States in similar fashion to how “we spy on them.”
A reporter aboard Air Force One said to Trump, “We recently reported that Chinese entities may have provided Iranians with satellite imagery of the air bases in Jordan,” to which Trump said, “They do what we do. They basically do what we do.”
“Are you going to raise that with Xi when he visits?” the reporter asked.
“I think he’s behaved reasonably well, and we behave reasonably well,” President Trump responded. “You know, when they say that China spies on us, I say, you’re right — and we spy on them too. You know? We spy on them too.”
The conversation surrounded a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, which indicated that imagery linked to Iran’s July strike on a Jordanian base is evidence of support from Chinese entities.
President Trump has also openly challenged China on AI development. While speaking to reporters, the president declared, We’re leading China in AI,” he said. “We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins.”
“We can put guardrails, we can do this and that,” Trump explained. “But I think you have a lot of very negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen.”
Trump also recently moved to protect the nation’s polysilicon industry from China, signing an order on the matter. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), China dominates the industry, producing 93.2% of the world’s polysilicon in 2024.
