Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made a bold prediction that China will "behave" and will be a "friend" of the US under his presidency.  

Trump made the remark during his first major election rally in New Jersey, which was also attended by New Jersey Governor and Republican Party member Chris Christie.

Like Us on Facebook

"Let me tell you something. China will behave and China will be our friend. We'll do better under China with me and we're also going to do better economically with me. They are going to respect our country again," Trump told his supporters.  

Trump, who is also a real estate business tycoon, stated that he is not bothered about the repercussions of an impending trade war with China.  

"These dummies say, 'Oh, that's a trade war. Trade war? We're losing $500 billion in trade with China. Who the hell cares if there's a trade war? Think of it. $500 billion and they're telling me about a trade war," Trump said.

Trump's remarks comes just a month after his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton took a jibe at China over rising steel production.

Hillary warned that she would take tough actions against China's dumping policies if she is elected as the US President.

Trade tensions between the US and China have risen over past couple of months due to the overcapacity in China's steel production, resulting in dumping of cheap steel across America and Europe.

China's excessive steel dumping has resulted in big losses for leading American and European steel companies, with losses running into billions of dollars.

To deal with the onslaught of Chinese dumping, many American companies and trade experts have started registering protests with trade regulators, forcing some important US leaders to take note of China's alleged unfair trade practices.                

Last month, America's major steel company US Steel Corp filed a trade complaint against China, accusing the country of serious trade malpractices such as fixing prices and stealing trade secrets.        

In another important case, earlier this year the US State Department Commerce penalized Chinese telecommunication company ZTE over alleged export violation to Iran. China warned the US that the bilateral trade relations between both nations would be effected if ZTE is not given any reprieve. ZTE was eventually given a short term reprieve by the US State Department nearly a month later.

Tagsdonald trump, china, China and US, Hillary Clinton, ZTE Corporation