{“CHINA BEATS you with trade, Russia beats you with war,” mused President Donald Trump on August 11th. “China is not beating us on trade, not when I’m in charge,” he added. Many disagree. His reflection came mere hours before he extended a fragile trade truce with China for another 90 days. After months of tit-for-tat tariffs, the Sino-American trade war has settled into uneasy stasis. But China is using the time to hone a sophisticated arsenal of economic weapons. Even as the sides contemplate a broader deal to stabilise the planet’s most important trading relationship—worth $659bn each year—China knows that its power is not in what it buys, but in what it sells.}