Hopefully things will get peaceful, as time goes on, between China and the US. Trump may not be around (in power), after the November election.
No, it's not Trump nor Xi. It's about national interest, and it is not even political.
The US has no problems with completely dictatorship countries (compared with China's collective/authoritative democracy) as long as they export interests to the US.
China happens to be the country which benefited from US's jump starting and doesn't want to keep exporting interest to the US.
And the US, or to certain degree, the Anglo Saxon ethnic, is rooted with colonialism, and you guys deeply believe by eradicating the old system in a new land you did a service to people living there.
And more importantly, the wealth of the I5 are accumulated in such a way.
So it's really a clash between I5's fundamental interest and China's national interest. It's nothing political, nothing presidential and nothing personal. It just has to happen regardless the fancy causes it is given.
But Trump
is quite erratic, so his actions must have some effect.
There is a normally a lot of difference between the public stance of politicians, & the interests of that country.
For instance, back in the '50s & '60s when both the PRC & the USSR were the "big baddies", with "Reds under the bed" rhetoric flowing freely in Australia, we were selling huge quantities of grain to both countries.
"Business is Business!"
Recently, Trump has decided that the WHO were "under the thumb of China" & started pressuring allies to support an inquiry, fairly obviously aimed at making China the scapegoat over COVID19.
That country, quite understandably, took offense.
Australia's PM, in public statements, backed the call, also pushing the "China bad" line.
When the actual official line came out, it was much more "wimpy", but the damage was done.
China increased tariffs on Australian barley, making it uneconomical for our farmers to export it, (or their factories to buy it).
All fair enough, so far, but then the PRC calmly turned around & bought their barley from the USA!
In Australia, we are quite used to our "Great & powerful friends" screwing us over, so it shouldn't have come as much of a surprise!
In a way, we seem to have gone back to the modus operandi of powerful States of the 18th & 19th centuries, where the reasons for wars were not ideological, but the perceived "best interests" of the existing power structures in those States.
After all, for most French people & English people life was not much different------- it really sucked in both countries, but during those centuries, thousands of people from both sides tried to kill each other, (& often succeeded), for little advantage.