Trump gets ready to slap China with investment restrictions, export controls

Round two of President Donald Trump's trade assault on Beijing is expected by the end of this week, when the Treasury Department rolls out new restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States and on the technologies that can be sold to China.After an internal debate, the administration appears to have settled on more aggressive restrictions favored by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro over a more conservative approach favored by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, two private-sector sources privy to the deliberations said.Like the tariffs that Trump imposed on $50 billion in Chinese imports — and those he has threatened to impose on $400 billion more if Beijing retaliates — the new investment restrictions and export controls are intended to pressure China to stop unfair trade practices that threaten the United States’ technological leadership. Trump is expected to invoke his emergency powers to protect national and economic security to put the restrictions in place.But the administration is already getting pushback from bureaucrats who think it would be a misuse of the export control system, and from businesses that fear the approach will further disadvantage U.S. firms trying to enter the Chinese market.