Why top Democrats are rooting for Trump in trade spat with China

With trade talks between the United States and China at a make-or-break moment, the news media and investors are focused heavily on President Donald Trump’s threat to jack up tariffs on China Friday if the negotiations don’t go well.

That focus is fair enough. Stocks have already tumbled because of the fear. The tariffs would impose meaningful burdens on businesses and consumers in the world’s two largest economies.

Often left on the sidelines of this discussion, though, is something essential: Those two nations, while economically intertwined, are also rivals in a technology race that will shape their respective futures. That’s one reason why China apparently backtracked on its pledges in the trade talks last week – including new legal protections against the theft of intellectual property, or IP.