The US leader Donald Trump’s former advisor John Bolton has written in his new book that the President pleaded with China’s leader Xi Jinping for help to win re-election in 2020.

Trump met with Xi at a summit last June when he “stunningly turned the conversation to the US presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win,” former national security advisor Bolton claims in his upcoming tell-all.

On Monday, Trump said that Bolton, could face a “criminal problem” if he doesn’t halt plans to publish a new book that describes scattershot, sometimes dangerous, decision-making by a president focused only on getting re-elected.

The administration pressured the chamber’s Republican majority, and the opposition Democrats fell short of the necessary votes to issue a subpoena compelling Bolton to testify.

In April this year, after resolving a shorter list of remaining issues, it appeared that the pre-publication review process had been finalised.

Earlier this month, Bolton got a letter from John Eisenberg, the president’s deputy counsel for national security, who claimed that Bolton’s manuscript still contained classified information and that publishing the book would violate his nondisclosure agreements.

In January, Trump had slammed John Bolton, a potentially damaging witness at his Senate impeachment trial, amid White House efforts to block publication of an explosive book by the former national security advisor.

Last year, in September, President Trump had fired Bolton, who was known for his hardline stances on Washington’s archenemies, particularly Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. He was replaced by Robert C O’Brien.

The Democratic National Committee earlier postponed the party’s presidential nominating convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to August 17, the week before the Republican Party’s convention, scheduled for August 24 to 27 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Earlier, Trump’s re-election campaign had said in a statement that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has “had to adopt most of Bernie’s agenda” — policies that Trump has branded socialist.

The 2020 US presidential election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 3.