For more than a decade, China and the United States have been engaged in a game of tit-for-tat technology protectionism, which now threatens to escalate into a wider high-tech trade war. But protectionism need not be met with protectionism. There is another route to deescalate this conflict: via the World Trade Organization.

Could Trump like Richard Nixon “echo like thunder” by unilaterally announcing a high tariff regime to balance U.S. trade deficit and break the WTO system? While some of Trump’s advisors would wave their heads affirmatively, the institutional and commercial leverage of the U.S today is much inferior from Nixon’s America that bended Europeans to follow her unilateral demands.

This December marks the 15th anniversary of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization. In the past 15 years, China could have played a bigger role in promoting global governance had the world’s institutional structures allowed it optimum participation in the global rule-making process. That will be China’s main objective in the future.

The US has accused China of illegally subsidising rice, corn and wheat farmers, adding agriculture to a growing list of Washington's concerns over Chinese overproduction and distortion of global markets.

In the long-term, a series of regional free trade agreements and the new global rules conform to China’s own economic restructuring and reform direction. China must enhance its level of liberalization in such areas as goods trade, service trade and investment, break through market barriers and get rid of institutional barriers. Making use of an open competition will promote the country’s upgrading in the global value chain.