It comes days after US President Donald Trump said Washington was considering a big “fine” as part of a probe into China’s alleged theft of intellectual property.
And now a trade expert has warned Mr Trump is “determined to bite somebody”.
The former president of the National Foreign Trade Council, William Reinsch, told CNBC: “The prevailing view in Washington now is that, this year, he is determined to bite somebody and China is the most likely target.”
Mr Trump has claimed that trade with China is unfair to the US but tensions with North Korea have stopped him from launching action.
The US has been eager to keep Kim Jong-un’s only ally on side in a bid to keep North Korea under control.
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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has warned China that US military action against North Korea is a possibility unless China works with the Trump administration to rein in the regime’s nuclear weapons program.
US businesses have claimed they lose billions of dollars in technology and millions of jobs to Chinese firms which have stolen ideas and software.
Tu Guangshao, vice chairman and president of China Investment Corporation said he expects “trade friction,” but not a “serious trade war,” between the two major economies.
He said: “The basic premise is that China-U.S. trade not just benefits China, but in fact benefits the US as well.”
Despite the differences between the two countries, trade has been growing between the two countries and China is still America’s largest single trading partner.
Mr Reinsch said: “The Chinese’s usual tendency in matters like this is to retaliate so we could get into one of these back and forth, tit-for-tat things where each side takes measures against the other side’s imports or investments and it kind of spirals downwards.”
According to James Rubin, who served as the US assistant secretary of state for public affairs during Bill Clinton’s presidency, China is becoming increasingly ambitious and “aggressive”.
He said: “Now the new leader, President Xi Jinping, is flexing China’s muscles militarily in the South China Sea.
“He’s flexing them by denying America’s place in the world and saying China’s taking over.
“That’s a competitive relationship we haven’t seen before and it’s risky”.
Mr Trump has said he plans to announce action against China over trade and would discuss the issue during his State of the Union address on January 30.
And many of his advisers have claimed that the US leader must return to one of his key campaign pledges of trade, which he failed to deliver on in his first year of office.