To the best of our knowledge that was the first time that Hu Xijin, the editor in chief of the Global Times, an English-language newspaper run by China’s “People’s Daily”, demonstrated how much of an impact one of his tweets could have on global markets. Since President Trump announced his plans to raise tariffs on Chinese goods, Hu’s tweets – for example, a warning last week about the risk of visa issues for Chinese students, or a tweet early last month warning that the chances of a deal in the near term were basically “zero” – have often been harbingers of official Chinese policy pronouncements.