The view that the Chinese leadership was desperate to negotiate a trade deal, to avoid economic pain that could destabilize Chinese society and threaten the Chinese Communist Party’s monopoly on power, is common among China hawks in the United States. This analysis is partly accurate, but it has led many to draw false conclusions.

Since China first joined the World Trade Organisation a quarter century ago, it has developed a particularly Darwinian version of capitalism, in which companies must tolerate unending rounds of brutal price competition,

Monthly surveys of Chinese factory managers shows export orders slowed in April as higher tariffs on U.S. imports began to kick in

A sharp pullback in China's export orders shows President Trump’s eye-watering tariffs are starting to squeeze the engine room of China’s economy, piling pressure on Beijing to boost its stimulus efforts.

The data covers a period in which a trade war between the US and China escalated dramatically, with tariffs now well over 100 per cent in both directions. China’s official PMI manufacturing gauge had expanded in February and March.