Written two weeks ago, before Trump started wavering:
Failure of statecraftTrump’s erratic approach — escalating tariffs without a defined endgame — reflects a broader failure of statecraft. He reportedly urged Xi to request a phone call to discuss the dispute, which would have implied submission. Beijing flatly refused. As Janet Yellen rightly observed, these are prohibitive tariffs with massive impacts. Yet, Trump carries on — without strategy, without allies, without credibility. Indeed, even the promise of isolating China via a coalition of like-minded allies is unravelling. The EU, India, Japan, and South Korea — all crucial to any US-led counter-China strategy — are wary of Trump’s unilateralism. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, which could have been the economic bulwark against Beijing, was discarded by Trump in his first week in office. His attacks on Canada, disdain for Europe, and punitive tariffs on Southeast Asia have left America alone in a battle that cannot be won in isolation. If this were a simple negotiation, Trump’s maximalist approach might have borne fruit. But trade wars are not real estate deals. They are contests of endurance, leverage, and global perception. China is fighting not just to defend its economy, but to signal that the age of American economic dominance — secured through coercion — is over. In this battle, Trump is neither outsmarting China nor reshaping the global order. He is merely accelerating America’s decline as a trustworthy economic partner. A trade war without a strategy is like a ship without a compass. And Trump, true to form, has chosen to sail into a storm of his own making. The question, then, is not whether Trump will win this trade war. The question is how much he will lose before he admits defeat. https://www.policycircle.org/world/trump-losing-china-trade-war/ | 
What is the goal of these tariffs?
