It is a cocktail of trade, tariffs, and technology. North Korea and China showcase two starkly different exemplars of Donald Trump’s wholly unpredictable, when not whimsical, foreign policy. In the immediate aftermath of the entente cordiale with Kim Jong-un, the US President has resorted to a bout of economic reprisal against China.

This is now at the core of the Washington-Beijing axis, one that cannot be obfuscated by semantics over whether or not a trade war has begun between the world’s two leading economies. Last Friday’s cache of a 25 per cent tariff on Chinese goods worth $ 50 billion has prompted Beijing to retaliate with a similar set of levies.

The tit-for-tat tariff hikes are bound to exacerbate tensions given the US administration’s warning that it will pursue further levies if China retaliates. That retaliation has been swift and immediate. The impact, both in the short and long term, shall not be confined to the two nations; the repercussions will be felt by the world in the wider perspective, most particularly the Asian economies. Technology is a major factor in the overall construct.

The White House has let it be known that the tariffs will apply to goods that “contain industrially significant technologies”. For all that, there appears to be a degree of double-think run wild in President Trump’s take on the souring of relations ~ “My great friendship with President Xi and our country’s relationship with China are both very important to me,” he said. “Trade between our nations, however, has been very unfair, for a very long time. The United States can no longer tolerate losing our technology and intellectual property through unfair economic practices.”

Without engaging in contrived diplomatic niceties, China has hit back with 25 per cent tariffs on $50 billion-worth of US goods, including agricultural produce, cars and seafood. Beijing has clothed its response with two clear warnings. The first is almost inevitable ~ the tariffs will harm the interests of both countries and disrupt world trade. Second, “All the results from the negotiations previously reached by the two parties will be invalid.”

There is little doubt that the US has initiated a deftly calibrated move. A list of targeted products, unveiled by the US Trade Representative’s Office, focuses on products that contribute to Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” initiative, most importantly its ambitious plan to upgrade its manufacturing and technology base and expand its own pharmaceutical sector.

The economic challenge that the US will have to countenance is forbidding. The tariffs on China have followed the marked deterioration of relations with other major trading partners ~ Canada, the European Union and Mexico ~ following a fractious meeting of the G7 leaders. While North Korea exemplifies the triumph of diplomacy, America’s economic ties with China have hit the reefs.