More than that, in 2018, the Chinese economy was by design, massively integrated and co-dependant with the collective west. That was meant to be China’s insurance policy to ensure the west does not turn on her, since the west will do as much damage to itself as it does to China with any trade or hot wars. But that cuts both ways. The primary reason China’s responses were so ‘weak’ back then was because any retaliation China did was going to hurt China as much as America.
Since then, while the west has talked about de-coupling and de-risking, China has quietly done it.
This means that China has far far more ammo to use against Trump 2.0 in a trade war compared to last time. And unlike last time, these actions are not going to damage China in their use.