Trump warns of Boeing plant going to China

North Augusta (US), Feb 17: Donald Trump has told South Carolina voters to be wary of aircraft giant Boeing opening a plane finishing plant in China, saying he would not let it happen if he were president.

"Be careful" because Beijing is "making Boeing build this massive plant in China" in order to secure orders, Trump warned. Should Boeing, which has a major plant in South Carolina, launch operations in the Asian giant as it announced last year that it would, it's "bye-bye to South Carolina," he told an exuberant crowd at a rally in North Augusta.

"It won't happen if I'm president, by the way." Trump played up his international business acumen at a rally in North Augusta ahead of Saturday's Republican primary, the third statewide contest in the long road to the nomination. But he and his rivals, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, also traded political punches and laid out attack lines ahead of the crucial primary, the first in the US South.

First-term Senator Rubio, mindful of the large evangelical population in the state, told a townhall in Beaufort yesterday that his faith would help guide his decisions in the Oval Office.

Cruz, another freshman US senator, sought to boost his support among military veterans in South Carolina, taking to the decks of the famed decommissioned World War II battleship USS Yorktown to declare he would restore US military might if elected, after "years of neglect by President Barack Obama.

"Starting next year our sailors won't be on their knees with their hands on their heads," Cruz said referring to the American sailors held in Iranian custody last month after their ship entered that country's waters. "Instead, they will be standing on the decks of the mightiest ships the world has ever known with their heads held high, confident that the great country that they volunteered to serve has their back."

AFP