China and US still in an escalatory loop

The fact that the Chinese authorities have once again matched US tariff hikes suggests that they are in no rush to negotiate with the Trump administration. They’ve said that they won’t hike tariffs any further but only because doing so would be meaningless in their view. They still appear committed to other forms of retaliation. A partial rollback of tariffs still seems likely at some point. But it is hard to envisage a meaningful reset in the US-China relationship.