This story is being published by the South China Morning Post as part of a content partnership with POLITICO. It was written by Megan Cassella and originally appeared on politico.com on May 29, 2018.
The White House’s announcement Tuesday morning to move forward with tariffs and import restrictions on China is the latest in a series of tit-for-tat trade actions that President Donald Trump and top members of his administration have taken.
The move reignites trade tensions once again between the world’s two largest economies and comes as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is preparing to go to Beijing later this week for further talks that were supposed to be geared toward reducing the bilateral trade deficit between the two countries that Trump has long sought to narrow.
His trip also comes at a time when the administration has been in a hot-and-cold relationship with Beijing. Here’s a look at some of the interactions the Trump administration has had with China over trade in the past several months that have led up to this point:
August 18, 2017
An investigation begins
President Trump directs the Commerce Department to start an investigation into China’s alleged theft of intellectual property and handling of foreign companies’ proprietary data.