The Financial Times comments that national security is the new cover for US protectionism. President Donald Trump signed his steel and aluminium tariffs under that false guise. But metal bending is not the most worrisome new area for protectionism. Trade in physical goods and services has been flat for years, but digital flows of commerce and information have risen by 45-fold in the past decade, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. The trade war to fear is not in physical commodities, but in technology, which economic nationalists hope to ringfence in order to stave off competitive threats from countries such as China. The US has already launched a so-called Section 301 investigation. The results are due this summer, but it will probably result in stricter barriers on Chinese investment in American data and IT. That could shut out companies such as, say, Tencent, or result in new tariffs on a wider variety of Chinese products — or even usher in new visa rules for Chinese immigrants...The government is right to want to look out for national security interests and to have a hand in how strategically important sectors are managed. But protectionism is not the way to do it.

CNN reports that there would be no winner in any trade war between China and the United States, but Beijing can handle any challenge, China's commerce minister said Sunday. "Trade war has no winners, it will only bring disaster to the economies of China, the US and the world," Zhong Shan told reporters at China's annual National People's Congress meetings in Beijing. "China does not want a trade war, nor will it actively initiate a trade war. However, we are capable of handling any challenge, and we resolutely defend the interest of the country and the people."