President Donald Trump on Monday signed a memorandum that could lead to a trade investigation of alleged Chinese theft of intellectual property.
The move comes as Trump aims to leverage China — North Korea’s only major ally — to apply more economic pressure on Pyongyang to deter its nuclear and missile programs. However, an administration official told the Associated Press the move is unrelated to the isolated regime.
The Trump administration wants to look into practices forcing American companies to share intellectual property in order to access the Chinese market. The U.S. government says the tactic can hurt economic growth.
Trump is asking his trade representative to look into whether an investigation is needed.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report
