Trade war now involves Apple

[Phidippides]

This is interesting/alarming from today's news:

Apple could be used as a 'bargaining chip' in the trade war, Chinese state media warns

The government-propped paper had this to say"

...China doesn't want to close its doors to Apple despite the trade conflict, but if the U.S. company wants to earn good money in China, its needs to share its development dividends with the Chinese people.

So now Apple is being used as leverage to threaten the U.S. in the trade war.  Things just stepped up.  Would China really start to go after Apple or other American businesses to force Trump to step back? 

This is kind of alarming.  Consider how many U.S. goods are produced in China, and we have ourselves a recipe for disaster if China decides to clamp down on more and more American companies.  Of course this would also hurt the Chinese economy, but I think it would hurt Americans more in the immediate future. 

At the same time, it is good since China is showing its hand.  Once China starts to engage in these kinds of threats, it will cause more and more companies to think twice about Chinese manufacturing. 

I think that China has had its way with the U.S. for far too long.  America is a nation of consumers, and we have sacrificed things like national security and fair trade on the altar of cheap electronics and other manufactured items.  In the long run, this is not good.  By disrupting this reality, Trump has actually done the U.S. a long-term favor.  We could have ignored it while it got worse, or done something now to address it.  Trump has called the Chinese bluff.  China has blinked.

[Donald Baker]

There will be no trade war.  China needs us to finance the debt they purchased.  Both sides will make concessions.