NEW YORK: Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has compared China’s high volume of exports to the United States as trade “rape”.

“We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country and that’s what they’re doing,” Mr Trump said at a rally in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on Sunday.

The CNN reported that Trump had repeatedly accused China of manipulating its currency to make its exports more competitive on the global market and claimed that China was “killing” the US on trade. “Mr Trump’s suits and ties are made in China,” CNN observed.

The media noted that it was the first time in this campaign that Mr Trump has used the term “rape” to refer to what he views as China’s dominance in trade with the US.

“We’re going to turn it around. And we have the cards, don’t forget it. We’re like the piggy bank that’s being robbed. We have the cards. We have a lot of power with China,” Mr Trump said.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd , 2016