Since taking office in January, Trump’s maelstrom of import duties against friend and foe alike has rattled diplomats and pushed global markets to the brink of financial meltdown.
Adding to the tensions, talks between the two superpowers on international issues like climate change and opioid addiction seem to have stalled.
“Trump has unsheathed his dagger against China at a speed that exceeded many people’s imaginations,“ he said.
A furious Beijing has set a retaliatory toll of 125 percent on goods entering from the United States, and dismissed further rises as pointless.
“China views Trump’s stated intent to... erect a ‘tariff wall against China’ as illegal and an existential threat,“ Thornton, now a senior fellow at Yale’s Paul Tsai China Center, said.
Just a few weeks ago, multiple reports suggested Beijing and Washington were mulling a face-to-face meeting to coincide with the two leaders’ birthdays in June.
Trump’s “rude and unreasonable” behaviour has made any talks in the first half of the year “very unlikely”, according to Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University.
Trump has approached the trade conflict with a typical mixture of flattery, denigration and bombast -- slamming China’s “lack of respect” while hailing Xi as a “smart guy” and talking up a prospective trade deal.
The “likeliest impetus” for talks, he said, would be a scenario where both could claim victory -- Trump by his willingness to keep ratcheting up economic pressure, and Xi by showing China’s resilience.
“Beijing will not agree to meet if it looks as if they are conceding to the US, so behind-the-scenes diplomacy will likely be necessary,“ Mitter said.
Other analysts said Trump’s fiery rhetoric and crippling tariffs had likely laid waste to backdoor talks.
Those channels “are moribund now, as far as I can tell, and that makes it difficult to prepare the ground for such a summit”, Oxford’s Foot said.
In official pronouncements, China has mocked Trump’s tariffs as a “numbers game” and a “joke” with no economic benefits.
Experts said China may yet scent opportunity in the face of Trump’s economic carnage.
“Trump’s colossally ill-conceived mass alienation of other countries may mean more receptivity for China’s outreach,“ said Yale’s Thornton -- adding that Beijing was likely conducting “economic triage”.
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