The White House is weighing a plan to stop Chinese companies listing on US exchanges in a move that would take its trade war with China to Wall Street.

US president Donald Trump’s advisers are exploring steps to limit financial investments between the US and China, according to people briefed on the plans. Other options include curbing the ability of US government pension funds to buy Chinese equities.

A widening of the US-China economic conflict into the arena of capital markets has long been pushed by hawks in Washington, but it has been resisted by other Trump advisers who fear that it could deal a fresh blow to markets and undermine investor confidence.

As of February this year, 156 Chinese companies with a total market capitalisation of $1.2 trillion (€1.09 trillion) were listed on the biggest US stock exchanges, according to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2019