China's trade surplus with the US balloons to a record $34.1 billion

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Pic/AFP

China's trade surplus with the United States ballooned to a record $34.1 billion in September, despite a raft of US tariffs, 1official data showed Friday, adding fuel to the fire of a worsening trade war.

Relations between the world's two largest economies have soured sharply this year, with US President Donald Trump vowing on Thursday to inflict economic pain on China if it does not blink. China's exports to the US rose to $46.7 billion while imports slumped to $12.6 billion, according to China's customs administration. The world's top two economies imposed new tariffs on a massive amount of each other's goods mid-September, with the US targeting $200 billion in Chinese imports and Beijing firing back at $60 billion worth of US goods.

"China-US trade friction has caused trouble and pounded our foreign trade development," customs spokesman Li Kuiwen said on Friday. China's overall trade - what it buys and sells with all countries including the US - logged a $31.7 billion surplus, as exports rose faster than imports. Exports jumped 14.5 per cent for September on-year, beating forecasts from analysts polled by Bloomberg News, while imports rose 14.3 per cent on-year. Analysts forecast the trade war will start to hurt China in coming months.

No nuke tech exports for China
The Trump administration has said that it would sharply restrict exports of civilian nuclear technology to China that officials claimed was being diverted to power new generations of Chinese submarines, aircraft carriers and floating nuclear power plants. The move came a day after the Justice Department announced the arrest of a Chinese intelligence officer who was charged with stealing secret information from GE Aviation.

US has an eye on India's moves
India's decision to continue buying oil from Iran after November 4 and purchase the S-400 Triumf air defence system from Russia is "not helpful" and the US is reviewing it "very carefully", the State Department has said. It has given a November 4 deadline to its allies to bring down their import of Iranian oil to zero.

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