Washington, Oct 15 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has defended hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House, saying Washington now makes “a lot of money” from China, and declared that he was rebranding artificial intelligence as “superintelligence” because the US was leading Beijing in the field.

Addressing a midterm election rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday (local time), Trump said the Chinese leader’s recent visit reflected good personal ties.

“We had the -- the President of China last week. And people said, 'Why are you doing that?' I’m doing that because we get along. It’s nice,” Trump said.

“You know, we’re doing great with China. We make a lot of money with China. We used to lose a lot of money with China. We make a lot of money with China. And China respects us too,” he added.

Trump said the length of Xi’s journey was itself a signal.

“He doesn’t fly in an aeroplane for 21 hours unless he respects the President of a country or the country itself. And we had a great - a very great meeting,” he said.

The President did not give details of what was agreed during the meeting or cite figures for his claim that the US now profits from its trade with China.

Turning to technology, Trump said the US was ahead of all rivals.

“You know, we’re leading the world. We’re leading China. We’re leading everybody with what they called artificial intelligence. But I said, it’s not artificial; it’s really super. It’s superintelligence. Sometimes it may get too super; that’s what we have to watch,” he said.

He said he had hosted leading technology executives at the White House, including at a dinner with Xi.

“I had them to the White House. I had them to dinner with President Xi. He knew every one of them and what they did,” Trump said, without naming the executives.

“They agree with me, it’s really superintelligence, so we’re going with that term,” he added.

China surfaced elsewhere in the speech. In a remark about the new White House ballroom, Trump said, “I thought President Xi would complain… that we’re reaching China.”

Pitching his proposed $5,000 payment to Americans if Republicans keep control of Congress in the November 3 elections, Trump said the money would have to be spent in the US.

“You can’t say… darling, let’s take a little trip to China so we can spend the five grand,” he said.

--IANS

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