Why US-China trade relations are not getting back to normal anytime soon

Even if the Trump administration cuts a trade deal with China, the Washington establishment has reached a consensus that business as usual with Beijing can't go on

President Trump, who made taking on China’s unfair trade practices one of his top priorities after coming into office in 2017, has shown that he’s willing to use unconventional tools to get Beijing to the table. But even if negotiators from his administration get China to commit to their demands — including protecting US intellectual property and buying massive amounts of US goods and services to narrow the trade deficit — that doesn’t mean America will go back to business as usual with Beijing.

This isn’t solely a function of the administration’s brinkmanship, which has led both countries to the