The trade war between two world powers – China and the US – isn’t just about money; it’s about power and who calls the major shots in the global economy. What started as a dispute over unfair trade practices soon turned into a full-blown tariff war. So, what is really going on here?

Trump is showing that he is willing to violate long-standing norms and strike at the core of other countries’ prosperity—and that nothing in the American system will stop a president hell-bent on punishing his own country’s allies for the sake of domestic politics.