The United States has also supplied much of the investment underpinning China’s economic growth. Between 1990 and 2017, America pumped more than $250 billion into China, according to a report by the Rhodium Group and the National Committee on United States-China Relations.

“The U.S. multinationals have been playing a very critical part of China’s development story, providing investment, technology, brands,” said Erlend Ek, trade research manager of China Policy, a Beijing-based advisory firm. “They have a very good relationship with each other.”

There’s another reason that Beijing may be reluctant to try a boycott: American multinationals are aiding the Chinese government in some important projects. IBM and Walmart, for example, are collaborating with the e-commerce company JD.com and Tsinghua University to improve food safety in China, a priority for Beijing.

That isn’t to say that the idea is off the table.

The Global Times, a nationalist tabloid controlled by the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, warned that a “people’s war” could be waged against the United States. On Chinese social media, the phrase “China is not scared!” has become a popular hashtag, the People’s Daily illustrating it with an image of Chinese and American boxing gloves.

“The patriotism and collectivism of the Chinese people will likely play a role,” the newspaper said in an editorial last month. “And the slogans to boycott American cars and other big commodities may ring through the Chinese internet and get a response.”