Xi Jinping and Donald Trump watch as people play music
Xi Jinping and Donald Trump at the White House on 24 September 2026. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Xi Jinping and Donald Trump at the White House on 24 September 2026. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
AnalysisThe US-China trade war seems to have subsided – but the sense of calm is misleadingEduardo Porter

A truce has cooled the trade conflict, but neither country has done anything to limit the outbreak of new hostilities

Donald Trump’s trade wars have largely fallen off the headlines. Fears of new tariffs flare up from time to time when the US president goes off the rails – for instance, threatening to end US trade with countries with which it has a deficit unless the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates. But the sense that the world’s two largest economies are plowing ahead into an overt economic conflagration has taken a back seat to other, more salient fears, about Trump ending American democracy, AI killing us all and stuff like that.