Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba, has abandoned a promise to create 1m new jobs in the US, in a sign of the threat that rising trade tensions with China pose to some of US President Donald Trump’s key economic goals.

Mr Ma’s promise, made early last year, was one of the most prominent commitments from business leaders seeking to curry favour with the then president-elect. He said that the jobs would be created over a period of five years by American companies which used Alibaba’s online platform to sell in China.

In an interview with Chinese news outlet Xinhua published on Wednesday, however, Mr Ma said that “the promise was made on the premise of friendly US-China partnership and rational trade relations.” He added: “That premise no longer exists today, so our promise cannot be fulfilled.”