Since the collapse of trade talks in mid-May, voices from both sides have warned of the economic havoc their side can unleash while boasting of their economy’s resilience. Academics in China speak about weaponizing the country’s foreign exchange reserves by selling off some of the roughly U.S.$1.1 trillion China holds in U.S. treasury bonds. Donald Trump says trade tariffs enrich the U.S. government. And countless articles in English and Chinese have argued that one country’s economy—because of the size of its exports or imports, or its government’s ability to plan ahead, or its GDP growth numbers—is better suited to withstand the trade war than the other.

What do observers from both countries get wrong about the economics of the trade war? And what is a better way to explain it? —The Editors