China one of great thefts of all time: Trump

Republican presidential front- runner Donald Trump has slammed China for the devaluation of its tightly-controlled currency, describing the Communist trading giant as one of the "great thefts" of all time.

"China has been one of the great thefts of all time, what they've done to the United States. We can't let China continue to get away with what they're doing to our country," Trump said yesterday.

"The number-one way that countries are killing us is with devaluations of their currencies, and our companies can't compete. You take a look at what's happening in Japan with the devaluation of the yen, just look at this. Caterpillar is having such a hard time competing with Komatsu, which is a big tractor-maker from Japan," Trump said.

Trump also threatened that he would impose a hefty 40-45 per cent tariff on products coming from China into the US.

"It's a threat. What China has done to us with devaluation of their currency is unbelievable," he said.

"Nobody thought they were going to do it again, and then four months ago they had the largest devaluation that they've had in 20 years. The largest in 20 years. Now they're going to do it again. Our companies can't compete. They are devaluing their currencies," he added.

Terming the the recent trade agreements as a disaster, Trump said Trans-Pacific Partnership should not be signed.

"TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, is a disaster because they don't talk about monetary manipulation and devaluation. They don't talk about it," he said.

"The NAFTA agreements and trade agreements that we have generally will be fully renegotiated by me. We have right now a deficit with Mexico, a trade deficit of USD 58 billion. We have a USD 500 billion deficit with China. You can't have this. We will renegotiate," he said.

Faced with sluggish economic growth and dwindling exports, China, the world's largest trading nation, has devalued its currency for a long time. A number of countries have expressed their concern over the move including India which termed it as a "worrying" development.