As President Trump seeks to ramp up pressure on China by implementing additional tariffs, he and his administration may find the constraints of international law and WTO procedures hard to circumvent. Washington should suspend its tariff threat, sit down with President Xi’s reform-minded team and press for the further liberalization of China’s foreign direct investment and intellectual property rights regimes.

Dominic Ng warns that closer US scrutiny into investments by foreign companies could lead to a blanket ban on Chinese funding in specific sectors, in turn dealing a blow to US jobs, America’s investors, and its reputation for transparency and openness.

Dean Chen analyzes the potential impact of America’s upcoming midterm elections on U.S.-China relations. For short-term electoral prospects, Trump and GOP candidates will likely campaign to brandish their anti-China credentials to attract nationalist votes, while the Democrats will likely seek every opportunity to scrutinize whether the administration is retreating from its pressure campaign against Beijing.

The US’ increasingly hard line on China makes it harder to avoid confrontation.

President Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on ZTE may have been due to China’s announcement of retaliatory tariffs on agricultural goods: tariffs that significantly impact the livelihoods of the U.S. farming community, one of Trump’s biggest supporters.

The trade war may well be an early skirmish in a much tougher battle, during which economics will ultimately trump Trump.

As the U.S. and China exchange their first barrage of tariffs, it's worth examining the flawed logic that led the U.S. to begin this trade war. The reality is that the U.S. is not the paragon of a free market economy it presents itself as, and China is not as exploitative in trade as the Trump administration would suggest.

Unlike the US and Imperial Japan, China supports harmony for all.

How Trump’s unique approach drives US economic policy.

The producer-consumer relationship between China and the US underpins the current global trade landscape, and it is unlikely to change in the short run because of a trade war.