Commenting on the US Senate’s drafting of a bill to tighten sanctions against Russia and its key trading partners, the expert said: "China will condemn the bill as a violation of the principle of sovereignty through an extraterritorial assertion of US law. "As long as Trump seeks a less conflictual relationship with China, he will hold back from the most damaging moves," Werner noted. "However, the bill makes [the US executive branch] available crippling secondary tariffs and sweeping secondary sanctions that, if fully implemented against China, would lead to a crisis in the relationship. In that event, China would likely again cut off US access to rare earth exports and impose its own proportionate retaliatory tariffs and sanctions," the expert pointed out. On Wednesday, a bill to tighten unilateral sanctions against Russia and Iran passed its second procedural vote in the Senate.