US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's salvo against Chinese students, promising to "aggressively revoke" their visas, is the latest move in heightening tensions between the world's two largest economies. Despite a temporary tariff truce reached between them earlier this month, divisions between Washington and Beijing remain wide, with recent ruptures over higher education, artificial intelligence (AI) chips and rare earth minerals. Here's all we know about how relations between China and the United States are worsening despite diplomatic efforts. A US-China trade spat escalated after Trump's administration raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145 percent earlier this year, with cumulative US duties on some Chinese goods reaching a staggering 245 percent. Under an agreement reached on May 12 following two days of trade talks in Geneva, tariffs on both sides were dropped by 115 percentage points for 90 days, during which time negotiators hope to secure a longer-term agreement.

US stocks have fallen further after Donald Trump imposed a new trade restriction on the chip designer Nvidia, rattling investors and triggering a sell-off across the semiconductor industry. The S&P 500 index dropped by about 1.3% in early trading, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq index down 2.1%. The Dow Jones fell 0.6%. Nvidia, the Californian company at the heart of the revolution in artificial intelligence technology, lost billions of dollars from its market value at the opening bell, with its shares down about 6%. The sell-off, which has spread to semiconductor makers in Asia and Europe, comes after Nvidia said the Trump administration had restricted the sale of its H20 chip in China by means of new licence requirements.

EU trade policy should carve out space for the regulation of ethical and responsible artificial intelligence (AI) in future trade talks. This is the finding of a new study by researchers from the University of Amsterdam's (UvA) Institute for Information Law. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned the study to generate further knowledge about the interface between international trade law and European norms and values when it comes to the use of AI. As AI seeps ever more comprehensively into our daily lives--through our phones, our cars, even in our doctors' offices--the need to ensure responsible use of such technologies becomes ever greater. Responsible use of AI is therefore a top priority for the Dutch government and for the EU as a whole.

The Trump administration is adding a group of Chinese tech companies that develop facial recognition and other artificial intelligence technology to a U.S. blacklist over concerns that the tech is being used to repress China's Muslim minority groups. The move comes ahead of trade talks between the U.S. and China later this week, which one analyst said sets a "negative tone" for the negotiations. The 28 companies added to the blacklist include Hikvision and Dahua, both of which are global providers of video surveillance technology, as well as prominent Chinese AI firms such as Sense Time, Megvii and iFlytek. The Commerce Department on Monday placed the companies on a so-called Entity List for acting contrary to American foreign policy interests. The blacklist effectively bars U.S. firms from selling technology to the Chinese companies without government approval.

The U.S. government expanded its trade blacklist to include some of China's top artificial intelligence startups, punishing Beijing for its treatment of Muslim minorities and ratcheting up tensions ahead of high-level trade talks in Washington this week. The decision, almost certain to draw a sharp response from Beijing, targets 20 Chinese public security bureaus and eight companies including video surveillance firm Hikvision, as well as leaders in facial recognition technology SenseTime Group Ltd and Megvii Technology Ltd. The action bars the firms from buying components from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval – a potentially crippling move. It follows the same blueprint used by Washington in its attempt to limit the influence of Huawei Technologies for what it says are national security reasons. U.S. officials said the action was not tied to this week's resumption of trade talks with China, but it signals no let-up in U.S. President Donald Trump's hard-line stance as the world's two biggest economies seek to end their 15-month trade war.

WASHINGTON/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The U.S. government expanded its trade blacklist to include some of China's top artificial intelligence startups, punishing Beijing for its treatment of Muslim minorities and ratcheting up tensions ahead of high-level trade talks in Washington this week. The decision, almost certain to draw a sharp response from Beijing, targets 20 Chinese public security bureaus and eight companies including video surveillance firm Hikvision, as well as leaders in facial recognition technology SenseTime Group Ltd and Megvii Technology Ltd. The action bars the firms from buying components from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval - a potentially crippling move. It follows the same blueprint used by Washington in its attempt to limit the influence of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd for what it says are national security reasons. U.S. officials said the action was not tied to this week's resumption of trade talks with China, but it signals no let-up in U.S. President Donald Trump's hard-line stance as the world's two biggest economies seek to end their 15-month trade war.

WASHINGTON - In recent weeks, U.S. President Donald Trump has drawn the ire of security hawks in Congress for suggesting he could trade away his blacklisting of Huawei Technologies Co. to secure a trade deal with China. On Saturday he took a big step toward doing just that, signaling that he cares more about selling U.S. products to China than embarking on a clash of civilizations advocated by some top advisers. In the long run, those business instincts may say more about where U.S.-China ties are headed than his deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping to suspend any new tariffs and resume trade talks. Trump's move last month to cut off supplies to Huawei, one of China's most celebrated companies, marked a major escalation in his confrontation with Beijing after he raised tariffs following a collapse in trade talks. Putting the company on a Commerce Department "entity list" normally reserved for rogue regimes and affiliated businesses was seen as the latest sign the U.S. and China were tumbling into a new technological cold war.