YJ Fischer served at the State Department from 2012-2016. She co-wrote the 2016 Democratic Party platform and served on the Clinton-Kaine transition team. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) On Friday, President Donald Trump canceled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea, citing the lack of progress on denuclearization and blaming China. "Because of our much tougher Trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization," Trump tweeted.

Trump is right. His trade war with China is undermining diplomatic efforts to denuclearize North Korea, as well as other US objectives.

YJ Fischer

On Thursday, as trade talks between American and Chinese officials failed to make any progress, the Trump administration's tariffs on $16 billion worth of Chinese goods went into effect . China retaliated in kind with its own tariffs on a similar amount of US goods. Trump has threatened to impose another round of tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports and Beijing is ready to keep the cycle going.

Trump still seems to think that this trade war is going to lead to an easy win. Earlier this week, Trump boasted at a rally : "When I came we were heading in a certain direction that was going to allow China to be bigger than us in a very short period of time. That's not going to happen anymore." Trump's attitude is being interpreted in Beijing as a sign that Trump doesn't just want to equalize a trade imbalance, but instead wants to stop China's growth altogether. That has rankled Beijing, with some likening it to the start of a new Cold War.