Previous reports have noted that Trump has also been in touch with Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, two figures targeted by the F.B.I.'s Russia probe.
Serious questions are raised by the failure of the Metropolitan police to inform the public figures targeted by the phone hacking and the Crown Prosecution Service decision not to prosecute the journalists and editors involved.
The new sanctions, bringing to more than 100 the number of regime figures targeted by the EU, showed a resolve, said Hague, "to intensify the pressure, the economic and diplomatic stranglehold on this regime".
Peter Pears, the singer and partner of Benjamin Britten, the writer JB Priestley, and the actor Michael Redgrave were among prominent figures targeted by MI5 because of their leftwing sympathies and named in hitherto secret files released on Friday.
Mr Xu is the latest in a series of high-profile figures targeted in the government's crackdown on corruption.
At the time of writing, the petition had gained over 96,000 signatures, and looks set to reach its six-figure target within days.
But Yvette Cooper would not "pick a figure out of thin air" when asked to give a net migration figure target..
Despite missing out on the four-figure target - last achieved by Graeme Hick for Worcestershire in 1988 - Compton is set on continuing his purple patch.
