Call it a New Year's greeting from the Chinese government to the incoming administration of Donald Trump.

As the president-elect rang in 2017 entertaining guests at his opulent Mar-a-Lago estate, China quietly ushered in a series of measures aimed at better controlling the value of its local currency, the yuan.

Throughout his campaign, Trump accused China of "manipulating" the yuan to make Chinese exports more competitive in global markets. China's latest announcement will likely add fuel to that debate.

Unlike countries that mostly let markets determine the value of their currencies, Beijing tries to peg the yuan to a basket of other currencies. Starting Jan. 1, the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange will use a new, broader basket of global currencies to benchmark the yuan's value. The change will have the effect of reducing the impact of the U.S. dollar on the official valuation.

"This is unambiguously bad news for the United States," High Frequency Economics Chief Economist Carl Weinberg said in a note to clients Tuesday. "China has put a new chip on the table to counter trade adventurism by the Trump administration."