Dear Focus Reader,

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Friday that the United States will impose new tariffs of 100% on Chinese imports starting November 1, following a previous threat of "massive tariffs" just hours before. Washington will also impose export restrictions on "any and all critical software."

The statement comes after Beijing's expansion of export controls on rare earth minerals earlier this week, which themselves followed last week's additional restrictions by the U.S. on technology exports and ongoing scrutiny of Chinese investments in strategic sectors. Beijing widened its rare earth export curbs, adding five new elements and imposing stricter oversight on overseas users of Chinese materials. China's Foreign Ministry described the controls as necessary for "national security and sustainable development" and stressed that foreign companies must comply with Chinese regulations.

Trump said today's tariffs respond to what he called "hostile and restrictive" Chinese trade practices, and that there was "no reason" to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea.

U.S. financial markets reacted sharply to Trump's announcements, with Wall Street experiencing its steepest single-day decline since April, with the S&P 500 dropping 2.71 percent. Analysts linked the sell-off to investor concerns over potential disruptions to global supply chains and heightened trade tensions between the world's two largest economies. Experts also see the recent escalations by both countries as attempts to increase their leverage ahead of next month's tariff negotiation deadline.

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