Wholly or partly foreign-owned companies in the country accounted for $980bn of China’s exports last year, or more than one-quarter, and $820bn of imports, or more than a third, data from China’s General Administration of Customs and calculations by the Financial Times showed. China registered a record trade surplus of nearly $1tn last year.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said China will need to strike a trade deal with the US quickly as it can’t win a drawn-out trade war that will do severe damage to its economy. In a post on X,

The Trump administration has been saying that the two countries are engaged in talks to resolve the dispute, but Beijing asserts that no such discussions are happening.