President asks for probe of Chinese trade practices

BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Even as he seeks Beijing’s help on North Korea, President Donald Trump asked his trade office on Monday to consider investigating China for the alleged theft of American technology and intellectual property.

Trump, in the midst of a 17-day vacation, left his New Jersey golf club to return to the White House to sign an executive action on the probe. He suggested that more steps would be taken against China on trade issues.

“This is just the beginning — I want to tell you that,” Trump said. “This is just the beginning.”

There is no deadline for deciding if any investigation is necessary. Such an investigation easily could last a year.

In a phone call Friday, Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for backing the recent U.N. vote to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea, and the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

But Trump also told Xi about the move toward a possible inquiry into China’s trade practices, according to two U.S. officials familiar with that conversation. They were not authorized to publicly discuss the private call and spoke on condition of anonymity.

China announced Monday it will cut off imports of North Korean coal, iron and lead ore and other goods in three weeks under U.N. sanctions imposed against Pyongyang.

In an editorial Monday, the China Daily, a mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, linked Trump’s trade announcement against China to his disappointment over China’s purported failure to rein in North Korea. The newspaper said a trade probe, which could lead to punitive tariffs on Chinese exports, would “poison” U.s.-china relations.