DANANG, Vietnam -- President Donald Trump stood before a summit of Asian leaders keen on regional trade pacts and delivered an "America first" message Friday, denouncing China for unfair trade practices just a day after he had heaped praise on President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
"We are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore," Trump told business executives on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. "I am always going to put America first, the same way that I expect all of you in this room to put your countries first."
The president -- who pulled the United States out of the Pacific Rim trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- said the U.S. would no longer join "large agreements that tie our hands, surrender our sovereignty and make meaningful enforcement practically impossible."
Instead, he said, the U.S. will pursue one-on-one trade deals with other nations that pledge fair and reciprocal trade.
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As for China, Trump said he'd spoken "openly and directly" with Xi about the nation's abusive trade practices and "the enormous trade deficits they have produced with the United States."
It was a stark change in tone from Thursday, when Trump was Xi's guest of honor during a state visit in Beijing. There, Trump opted for flattering Xi and blaming past U.S. presidents for the trade deficit.
Trump said China's trade surplus, which stood at $223 billion for the first 10 months of the year, was unacceptable. He repeated his language from Thursday, when he said he did "not blame China" or any other country "for taking advantage of the United States on trade."
But Trump added forceful complaints about "the audacious theft of intellectual property," "massive subsidizing of industries through colossal state-owned enterprises," and American companies being targeted by "state-affiliated actors for economic gain."
U.S. officials have raised similar concerns in the past about China, especially with regard to intellectual property.
Behind the scenes, White House officials quietly negotiated with the Kremlin over whether Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin would hold a formal meeting on the sidelines in Danang, with the Russians raising expectations for such a session.
As speculation built, the two sides tried to craft the framework of a deal that Trump and Putin could announce in a formal bilateral meeting, according to two administration officials not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions.
Though North Korea and Ukraine had been discussed, the two sides focused on trying to strike an agreement about a path to resolve Syria's civil war once the Islamic State group is defeated, according to officials. But the talks stalled and, just minutes before Air Force One touched down in Vietnam, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that the meeting was off.
When asked about the outcome, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later snapped at reporters: "Why are you asking me? Ask the Americans."
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that even without a formal meeting, "Both presidents are in town, and their paths will cross one way or another."
They did on Friday night during the summit's welcome gala: The two men, each wearing traditional Vietnamese shifts, shook hands and greeted each other as they stood side by side for the group photo of world leaders.
Leaders of the 11 remaining nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- representing roughly 13.5 percent of the global economy -- met on the sidelines of the summit to seek an agreement in principle that would not require U.S. involvement. Early today, they issued a statement saying they reached an accord on "core elements" of the pact.
Separately, a 16-member regionwide pact called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership was also under negotiation. It encompasses China and India but also does not include the U.S.
JOINT VENTURES
American and other securities firms scored a win Friday when China announced new rules allowing them to own 51 percent stakes in joint ventures. It's just the sort of market-opening move Trump was seeking on his first trip as president to Beijing.
Except the administration didn't know it was coming.
Trump didn't ask for it in specific terms on the trip, said people familiar with the situation -- even though it's been at the top of the wish list for U.S. financial firms for years.
It is the most important thing that happened while Trump was in China, business experts said, and Trump would have been well within his rights to trumpet it on Twitter. China has resisted letting overseas firms have controlling stakes in the country, but experts said it's a critical step to allowing investment to flourish in that nation's tightly controlled economy.
China's announcement didn't merit a mention in the 1,392-word statement the White House released about what happened while Trump was in China.
U.S. officials sought to downplay the significance of the development, saying it's just one small step when China needs to fundamentally remake its approach to letting foreign investment onto its shores.
Some financial experts disagree, saying that it's an important development for individual banks seeking to strengthen their footholds in the world's second-largest economy -- something that also would help Trump with his goal of reducing the U.S. trade deficit with China.
"I believe China has planned for this for a very long time, and now is the right time to announce it because Trump is visiting," said Iris Pang, a China economist at ING Groep NV in Hong Kong.
PACIFIC RIM
Trump's decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership has scarcely dented the push for freer trade in the region, judging from the frenetic growth of exports of clothing and shoes, cellphones and computers from booming Vietnam.
The nation of 95 million is thriving from surging trade and investment even without the advantage its exports might have gained from its participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement rejected by Trump. The changes are evident in Danang, a former battlefield transformed into a tourism and investment hub.
"As all these countries around the world are moving forward on trade and are getting better deals for their economies, the U.S. is falling behind and that's a real problem for American companies," said Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi.
Vietnam's export sector has blossomed as Chinese and other manufacturers of T-shirts, pants, and other inexpensive clothing and shoes moved their factories to Southeast Asia to take advantage of the region's lower wages and anticipated tariff cuts under the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Much of the world's production remains in China, but supply chains are stretching ever farther into Southeast Asia and beyond, into South Asia and Africa, in search of cheaper labor and new, faster-growing markets.
Demand is surging so rapidly that factory bosses have a hard time finding and keeping skilled workers, said Phan Minh Chinh, president and chief executive officer of Pro Sports Giao Thuy Joint Stock Co., a garment factory outside Vietnam's capital, Hanoi.
"With or without TPP, Vietnam's apparel exports to the U.S. continue to grow," said Chinh, who counts among his customers brands such as Wal-Mart, Zara and The North Face. "Even without TPP, our production continues and we still get many orders from our U.S. clients."
Information for this article was contributed by Jill Colvin, Jonathan Lemire, Tran Van Minh and Elain Kurtenbach of The Associated Press; and by Jennifer Jacobs, Peter Martin and Craig Gordon of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 11/11/2017