Starting a trade war with China?

[stpioc]

On Monday, President Donald Trump signed a measure to begin exploring an investigation into China's theft of US intellectual property (IP). In the international business community, it's no secret that in China, there is little respect for trade secrets. 

However, the way the Trump administration is handling the issue ignores a clear warning the Chinese government gave to the US back in January. It's using Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974, a law that hasn't been used in decades and would allow Trump to put a tariff on Chinese goods without Congressional approval.

In an interview with Prospect.org Trump adviser Steve Bannon seemed gleeful about the grave implications of Section 301. He confirmed reports that at least some in the administration had planned to skip the exploratory process for the investigation and proceed more aggressively, but the conflict with North Korea slowed down the process.

“To me,” Bannon said, “the economic war with China is everything. And we have to be maniacally focused on that. If we continue to lose it, we're five years away, I think, ten years at the most, of hitting an inflection point from which we'll never be able to recover.””

China warning trump on trade - Business Insider