China calls attacked by Trump ‘disturbances’

BEIJING — China understands people in the United States have the right to say what they want, but most want good relations with China, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday, apparently dismissing repeated attacks by billionaire Donald Trump as “disturbances”.

The Republican presidential hopeful has recently focused his ire on China’s currency, which the government devalued last month. He has also accused China of stealing U.S. jobs.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the United States later this month.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying would not comment directly on Trump’s broadsides, and noted last week’s visit to China by U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice, saying both countries wanted a successful visit for Xi.

“We understand that in the United States every person has the freedom to make all kinds of comments. But for the Chinese government, we pay even more attention to the U.S. government’s policy towards China and mainstream U.S. public opinion,” she said.

“The history of the development of Sino-U.S. ties in recent years shows that from time to time there will be all sorts of voices, or sometimes certain disturbances,” Hua told a daily news briefing.

The reason relations kept developing was that people wanted ties to be good, she added.

“I hope that all sides, whether officials or the media or people in both countries, can aim at this and work hard together to move in this direction.”