(Financial Review) Donald Trump has taken the extraordinary step of "ordering" US companies to pull out of China after Beijing announced a fresh wave of retaliatory tariffs on US goods.
In a blistering tweet storm, the President came close to declaring a complete "decoupling" from the world's second-biggest economy - an epoch-defining concept that many China hawks in Washington have increasingly called for behind closed doors.
"We don't need China and frankly, would be far better off without them," Mr Trump wrote early on Friday (Saturday AEST), hours ahead of his departure to France for G-7 talks.