U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday renewed his threat to cut ties with China, a day after his top diplomats held talks with Beijing and his trade representative said he did not consider decoupling the U.S. and Chinese economies a viable option.
The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia described U.S.-China relations as "tense" after their first high-level face-to-face diplomatic talks in months, although he said Beijing did recommit to the first part of a trade deal reached this year and that the coming weeks would show if there had been progress.
Trump has made rebalancing the massive U.S. trade deficit with China a top priority, but relations have worsened steadily as his campaign for re-election in November heats up.