Trump warns China that US has economic option to ‘decouple‘

US President Donald Trump warned Thursday that “complete decoupling” between the deeply intertwined US and Chinese economies remains a potential policy.

“The US certainly does maintain a policy option, under various conditions, of a complete decoupling from China. Thank you!” Trump tweeted.

He wrote that he was responding to comments by his trade representative Robert Lighthizer, who has been at the forefront of trade war negotiations with Beijing.

On Wednesday, Lighthizer told a congressional committee that China was so far living up to the terms of an agreement easing the dispute and that decoupling the two economic giants was now impossible.

“That was a policy option years ago, but I don’t think it’s a policy or reasonable policy option at this point,” he said.