Trump trade attacks to face reality of shrinking Chinese surplus

Imports rose 3.1 per cent to leave a $40.8 billion trade surplus for the month

A week from Donald Trump assuming the US presidency, data from the country he’s called a trade cheat and threatened to label a currency manipulator show China’s trade surplus with both the world and the US actually shrank last year.
 
China’s overall trade surplus — which represents demand borrowed from other nations in a zero-sum interpretation of international economics — shrank 14 per cent in 2016 to $512.9 billion, down from a record in 2015 and the first drop in five years, customs data showed Friday. Against the US, the surplus dropped to $254 billion from $260 billion even