Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said in an interview that “we’ve just stuck with our theory, which is managed competition.” Trump and Xi Jinping might have other plans.

But Mr Trump’s most incendiary claims are reserved for China. The Communist Party, he says, “has subsidised and otherwise incentivised” Chinese firms to “export fentanyl and related precursor chemicals that are used to produce synthetic opioids sold illicitly in the United States”.

China's sharpest pushback on Sunday was over fentanyl, an area where the Biden administration had also been urging Beijing to crack down on shipments.

As the leaders of Canada and Mexico rushed to respond after Donald Trump started a new trade war, Chinese President Xi Jinping took a breath before his nation announced any concrete retaliation.

Robert Lighthizer, who was the U.S. trade representative in President Trump's first administration, says China poses an existential threat to the United States that must be urgently addressed by Washington.