I think the world is looking for more neutrality and hoping it can talk both the US and China out of a disastrous economic and diplomatic war, but we really should stop calling this a trade war - it is well beyond that where the US (MAGA, actually) and China are concerned. A trade war is typically fought to resolve differences over economics (i.e., economic cheating, dumping...that sort of thing). A trade war would be fought to resolve, say, some offense that we accused China of that couldn't otherwise be resolved to our satisfaction by entities like WTO.
At minimum, this is an attempt by the United States at economic *and* political containment. The United States is not just attempting to disrupt trade between the US and China (to the extent we can), it is really more of an attempt now to compel many other nations to work with us to isolate and economically injure China, to box them in, and even push them back out of Africa, out of South America, out of Europe and Asia. This is a full-on schoolyard lunge and attempted tackle by the United States.
The rest of the world is not going to just side with the United States. We've proven to them in just a matter of 3 months that we cannot be trusted with that kind of power. In the coming days and weeks, we'll hear a lot about how trading partners have no choice and that the US holds all the cards, and that they can either side with us or side with the enemy, and if they do the latter there will be hell to pay.
If the current administration follows through with threats to weaponize our current economic trade, our resources, and other forms of power - if we actually do it without hesitation or exemption, it would take what is now arguably a monumental folly and turn it into the worst foreign policy decision in the history of this country, and we've made quite a few of these the last 20 years.
I am not seeing any signs at all of grand macro-strategy no matter how his apologists frame what he's doing now. To be sure, there is grand macro-strategy to be had -- to the benefit of his legacy, no less. But we've seen his act in the first term and now even more so in this one. He is rash. He is impulsive. He doesn't listen. If you give him a menu of options, he will choose the worst one because it's the one that has the most shock value and is guaranteed to cause the most headlines and disruption. That is his alpha and omega. And he has surrounded himself within his administration and within Congress and in his own version of Sputnik that we call Fox News with people who refuse to challenge him or correct him.
We're supposedly 90 days away from countries having to make a difficult choice between the United States and the "DragonBear" (aka China and Russia). I would say it's more like we may have 90 days left before Trump pulls the levers of power in ways that erode US global power and prestige - not to mention domestic wealth - with shocking rapidity. I can only hope that markets shock some sense into those around him and members of Congress enough to force their hand. Otherwise, we're ****ed.
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