Who could have seen this coming?

After President Trump (perhaps unexpectedly) caused a shitstorm in markets on Friday with his threats against China, it appears the scale of the carnage required 'good cop' VP Vance to calm the waters before futures open tonight.

The FT reports that Beijing has slammed President Trump's plan to impose additional 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese exports and threatened new countermeasures as it blamed the US for escalating tensions between the world's two biggest economies.

The commerce ministry said on Sunday that since the two countries held trade talks in Madrid last month, the US had "continuously introduced a series of new restrictions against China", including putting Chinese companies on a trade blacklist.

"China's position on tariff wars has been consistent: we do not want to fight, but we are not afraid to fight," the ministry added.

So, VP Vance was rolled out to Sunday morning shows to walk-back the US rhetoric a little...