What lies in store for future Sino-US ties?

Bilateral relations stare at four possible scenarios now that the US is hellbent on containing China's rise by igniting a tariff war

The Donald Trump administration has listed China and Russia as "strategic competitors" in its National Security Strategy report published in December 2017. The Taiwan Travel Act, which violates the very foundation of Sino-US relations, was unanimously passed in the US House of Representatives and Senate, which also imposed sanctions on Chinese telecom company ZTE. And the four main principles of the US' "Indo-Pacific" strategy that US Defense Secretary James Mattis elaborated on in early June during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore was obviously targeted at China.

The Trump administration has ignited trade conflicts, imposing additional tariffs on Chinese imports worth $34 billion on July 5 and announcing more tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products. These statements and actions show US elites have reached a kind of consensus on trade and economic relations with China, and bilateral ties have entered a phase of fundamental change.