It remains unclear where the China trade war is heading. Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent singled out China as “bad actors” in global trade. “China is the most unbalanced economy in the history of the modern world,” he told reporters, “and they are the biggest source of the U.S. trade problems.”

With travel warnings and revoked visas, the two superpowers locked in a bruising trade war may make students and tourists their bargaining chips.

China on Wednesday unexpectedly appointed a new trade negotiator key in any talks to resolve the escalating tariff war with the United States, replacing trade tsar Wang Shouwen with its envoy to the World Trade Organization.