At a meeting in Beijing late last year, US business executives tried to explain their concerns about imposing tariffs on Chinese exports to a group of administration officials from Washington.

The meeting was held after US president Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing and Congressional passage of a large tax cut for corporate America. The executives, who had expected a polite exchange of views, were shocked by the officials’ robust response. “They told us ‘your companies just got a big tax cut and things are going to get a lot tougher with China — fall in line’,” said one person who attended the meeting. 

Less than a year later, US multinationals are bracing themselves for what is shaping up to be an all-out trade war between the world’s two largest economies. It is likely that, within weeks, Mr Trump will impose punitive tariffs on more than half of all Chinese exports to the US. In response, President Xi Jinping’s administration will hit back at more than 80 per cent of US exports to China.