As President Trump threatens to heap more tariffs on Chinese imports, he’s got one important fact on his side: The United States remains China’s biggest single export market, buying some $500 billion in goods last year alone.
But China is less dependent on the American market than it was even a decade ago and in some ways is better able to withstand a trade war than the United States.
“The question is less whether we can do harm to them than, which one can endure the pain the better? And there are some reasons to believe that over the short term, the Chinese are better positioned to manage this,” says Robert Ross, a professor of political science at Boston College and an expert on U.S.-China relations.
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