China's September trade surplus with U.S. widens to record $34.13 billion

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's trade surplus with the United States surged to a record high of $34.13 billion in September, compared with $31.05 billion in August, Chinese customs data showed on Friday. The September surplus with the U.S. was larger than China's overall trade surplus of $31.69 billion for the month. For January-September, China's trade surplus with the United States was $225.79 billion, compared with about $196.01 billion in the same period last year. China's large trade surplus with the United States has long been a sore point with Washington and is at the center of an increasing bitter dispute between the world's two biggest economies. The United States and China imposed new tit-for-tat tariffs against each other's goods in late September, the latest escalation in a heated trade war between them. (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Richard Borsuk)