'Will help in your re-election...': China's stooge warns Trump amid tense US-China ties

A day after US President Donald Trump said that relation with China is 'severely damaged', editor of Chinese mouthpiece has attempted to warn the President. Claiming that 'decoupling from China' won't help in getting him a second term, he said that US should not take more action against China. 

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This comes after US has taken a number of measure against China. Donald Trump has recently said that his administration is mulling over the US-China trade deal amid tensed relations with Beijing. He had been blaming China since the outbreak of Coronavirus and has pulled out from the World Health Organisation (WHO), citing its bias towards China. The US has also announced visa bans on senior Chinese officials involved in restricting access to foreigners to the sensitive region of Tibet and reaffirmed its support for "meaningful autonomy" for Tibetans. Moreover, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that they are considering a ban on TikTok and warned American citizens from using Chinese-origin applications.

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US- China trade war

The trade war began between the two economies when in 2018 the Trump administration imposed tariffs on more than $360bn (£268bn) of Chinese goods, accusing it of 'unfair trade practices.' China retaliated with tariffs on more than $110bn of US products. Washington delivered four rounds of tariffs from 2018-2019. The most recent was a 15% duty on Chinese imports, from meat to musical instruments. Beijing hit back with tariffs ranging from 5% to 25% on US goods.

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Trade war & preliminary deal 

In January this year, the US and China had signed a deal to end their months-long trade war. According to the deal, China pledged to boost US imports by $200billion above 2017 levels and strengthen intellectual property rules. In exchange, the US agreed to halve some of the new tariffs it had imposed on Chinese products. While Washington termed it as 'transformative' for the US economy, Beijing had hoped for a 'win-win' situation.agreed to increase its purchase of US goods by USD 200 billion in 2020-2021.  

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