Robert Lighthizer, who was the U.S. trade representative in President Trump's first administration, says China poses an existential threat to the United States that must be urgently addressed by Washington.

But Mr Trump’s most incendiary claims are reserved for China. The Communist Party, he says, “has subsidised and otherwise incentivised” Chinese firms to “export fentanyl and related precursor chemicals that are used to produce synthetic opioids sold illicitly in the United States”.