Exports to China, Japan's largest trading partner, fell 10.9%, while shipments to the U.S dropped 8%.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cast doubt on the planned trip earlier, while insisting it was not meant to pressure China to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

China should commit military assets to keep oil moving through the Hormuz Strait, said President Trump, linking the issue to a summit with Xi Jinping.

Nvidia is gearing up to sell its H200 processors to customers in China after a lengthy delay due to restrictions from both the U.S. and Chinese government.

President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that he would delay his trip to China for "five or six weeks," officially pushing the major summit after administration officials opened the door to the trip's postponement as they focus on the war with Iran.

After President Trump said he needed to postpone his meeting in Beijing with Xi Jinping, a spokesman for China said officials were still discussing the timing of a meeting.

Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said the company is firing up manufacturing of H200 AI accelerators for customers in China, a sign of progress in the chipmaker’s effort to reenter the vital market.

As such, it is one of the ways China is shielding citizens from the effects of the war in Iran, which has trapped oil tankers on either side of the Strait of Hormuz and damaged energy infrastructure in the Gulf.

By Eduardo Baptista BEIJING, March 18 (Reuters) - Chinese tech giant Baidu on Tuesday unveiled a suite of artificial intelligence products, tapping growing domestic interest in OpenClaw, an open-source framework for agents that can perform complex tasks with less human input than chatbots.

The image disproves a social media claim that the carrier had deployed to waters off Taiwan.