“It’s really time for Trump to give up the useless tariff weapon and come to the negotiation table.”

This is a key phrase I saw in the editorial of the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party.

In any case, China’s retaliation to US tariffs will only take effect if the US punitive tariffs take effect. And the US punitive tarrifs have two months to take effect.

In fact it will go through a series of public stakeholder meetings…

I think China and the US are just sizing each other up, but then, you can never tell when the play turns to something else.