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David Fickling

The U.S. and China May Not Want a Deal After All

Keeping tensions bubbling could be politically expedient. That may be why both sides seem alarmingly comfortable with the deteriorating status quo.

Compromise doesn't make good politics these days. — Compromise doesn't make good politics these days.
Photographer: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

By

May 10, 2019, 9:30 AM UTC

In order to make peace, first you have to want it.

That’s a major barrier to any de-escalation of the simmering U.S.-China trade war. The economic Defcon alert went up a notch at midnight on Friday, as U.S. tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports were lifted to 25 percent from 10 percent and Beijing promised to retaliate. People familiar with the matter told Shawn Donnan, Jennifer Jacobs and Kevin Hamlin of Bloomberg News that there had been little to no progress in talks that started Thursday.