SHANGHAI: China stocks ended lower on Thursday, weighed down by fresh tensions between Beijing and Washington after the US House of Representatives passed a bill that threatens to delist Chinese companies from US stock exchanges. Both Democrats and Donald Trump's fellow Republicans echoed the president's hard line against Beijing, which has became fiercer this year as Trump blamed China for the coronavirus ravaging the United States.

At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.21% at 3,442.14, while the blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.2%. The smaller Shenzhen index ended up 0.08% and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was higher by 1.101%. Vaccine-related stocks helped limit losses in the index, after the Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences said it worked with China's Chongqing Zhifei to carry out phase III trial of a coronavirus vaccine in China's Hunan province in November. The company was up 4.6% at market close, while the healthcare sub-index rose 2.7%.