“CHINA BEATS you with trade, Russia beats you with war,” mused President Donald Trump on August 11th. His reflection came mere hours before he extended a fragile trade truce with China for another 90 days. After months of tit-for-tat tariffs, the Sino-American trade war has settled into uneasy stasis. But China is using the time to hone a sophisticated arsenal of devastating economic weaponry. Even as the sides contemplate a broader deal to stabilise the planet’s most important trading relationship—worth $659bn each year—China knows that its power is not in what it buys, but in what it sells.
The Economist
