US President Donald Trump is making a major miscalculation by going after China. The Trump administration appears to be contemplating a wide range of economic and political sanctions - from imposing punitive tariffs and designating China as a "currency manipulator" to embracing Taiwan and casting aside some 40 years of diplomacy framed around the one-China policy.

This strategy will backfire. It is based on the mistaken belief that a newly muscular United States has all the leverage in dealing with its presumed adversary, and that any Chinese response is hardly worth considering. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Yes, the US is one of China's largest export markets - and thus a central pillar of its spectacular 35-year development trajectory. Closing off the US market would certainly crimp Chinese economic growth.