As US-China tensions escalate, the trade war has morphed into a deeper, harder conflict
WASHINGTON - What started out two years ago as an effort by President Donald Trump to wring better terms from China on the nuts-and-bolts of foreign trade now threatens to become a far wider and more ominous confrontation.
The conflict continues to be framed as a "trade war" between the world's two biggest economies - as Washington and Beijing pursue an escalating series of tariff hikes and other retaliatory measures.
Even as Trump moved Thursday to open a new, potential damaging trade war with Mexico, however, the conflict with China has widened beyond the original trade-based issues.
Beneath the surface, a new tone has begun to emerge since trade talks broke down in early May and Trump ratcheted up tariffs on imported goods from China, an action met
