Barack Obama, the US president, took fresh aim at Chinese trade practices on Wednesday just as China’s leader-in-waiting used a visit to the US to try to mend fences with the American business community.
Both men travelled to the Midwest on Wednesday. However, they brought very different messages. Mr Obama used a campaign-style visit to a factory in Milwaukee to call for jobs to be “insourced” back from overseas.
“I am not going to stand by when our competitors don’t play by the rules,” he said. The administration had set up a new trade enforcement unit and “it has only got one job: investigating unfair trade practices in countries like China”.