Despite tariffs, Trump misses crucial factor to a China trade war

To fight a trade war against China, most foreign policy experts would say that you need allies.Why it matters: Over the past few months, the White House antagonized pretty much all its friends on the global stage,making it that much harder to carry out what is now a full-blown tariff battle with China.The big picture: China is a formidable economic force, the second-largest economy in the world, with significant resources likea vast labor supply, manufacturing heft, a growing electric vehicle industry and expanding military might."On critical metrics, China has already outmatched the United States," write the authors of a sobering new piece in Foreign Affairs.Zoom in: The best shot the U.S. has at holding its economic edge is in forging partnerships, Kurt Campbell and Rush Doshi write: "China possesses scale, and the United States does not — at least not by itself.""Because its only viable path lies in coalition with others, Washington would be particularly unwise to go it alone in a c...