U.S. designates Chinese body a foreign mission, quits local cooperation agreement

The United States said on Wednesday it was designating a U.S. branch of a Chinese government-controlled organization as a foreign mission and withdrawing from an agreement to promote local-level cooperation between the countries.The moves announced by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were the latest to curb Chinese activity in the United States in the run-up to next Tuesday's presidential election, in which President Donald Trump has made a tough approach to China a key foreign policy theme.