The U.S. and China Are Nic Cage and John Travolta, Basically
In the ridiculous/great Nicolas Cage/John Travolta classic “Face/Off,” two enemies fight each other by literally wearing each other’s faces. The U.S.-China trade war that formally began at midnight is kind of like that.
Led by President Donald Trump, the U.S. is behaving much as China has in the past, as a trade aggressor, slapping tariffs on Chinese goods, upending the global order and probably violating trade rules the U.S. helped write, say Bloomberg’s editors. China, meanwhile, is playing America’s typical role of free-trade defender, writes David Fickling: Its consumers aren’t boycotting American goods, nor are they burning them in the street, as they have in past trade spats.
