Trade war will not end in US' favor

Dashing hopes of a quick agreement on trade relations with China, the US administration imposed punitive tariffs on another $200 billion of Chinese goods. Now that the Chinese government has responded with new tariffs on $60 billion of US products, the United States is threatening tariffs targeting yet another $300 billion of Chinese imports. Both sides are now digging in for a long fight - largely because Americans have yet to feel the pain of the White House's policies.

China understood the US administration's transaction style some time ago. But it only recently began to appreciate fully the significance of the White House's "America first" policy, which according to US State Department Policy Director Kiron Skinner, rests on four pillars: national sovereignty, reciprocity, burden sharing, and regional partnerships.

National sovereignty and reciprocity are standard features of any country's foreign policy. They form the foundations of the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which recognized after the Thirty Years War that sovereign states have their own interests to defend, and must engage with other states on a reciprocal basis.