Trump can damage China’s economy with trade penalties. But tech restrictions might hurt more in the long term.

Even before Donald Trump takes office on Monday, trade tensions between the world’s biggest economies are already heating up.

China’s exports gained momentum in December, with imports also showing recovery, though strength at the year-end was in part fueled by factories rushing inventory overseas as they braced for heightened trade risks under a Trump presidency.

Donald Trump came to Washington eight years ago vowing to rewrite U.S. trade relationships, shrink a massive goods trade deficit and rebuild America's industrial base with new tariffs. The president-elect is about to embark on an even more aggressive effort in his second term,

Bloomberg reporters answer questions about how Trump’s promises to raise tariffs on China could lead to a trade war with global consequences.

When Donald Trump returns to the White House, he’ll be accompanied by a coterie of China hawks, all vowing to use tariffs and export bans to stop Beijing from challenging the United States’ supremacy in technology.

Trade between the world’s two largest economies is on the brink of chaos again. The outgoing Biden administration has turned up the heat in its final days, handing Trump a loaded gun in the form of sweeping restrictions directed at Beijing.