The US Constitution gives the Federal government power over interstate commerce for a reason: Unless the players abide by negotiated rules - Congress is where states negotiate - commerce fails. The WTO is an attempt at a supranational coordinator of trade policy, but it isn't powerful enough to get the job done. So we have trade wars.

At the heart of the problem is the difference in understanding of international economics. China is a zero-sum regime. They don't see how respecting our intellectual property, for example, would benefit Chinese interests. In contrast, the US has a long enough history with plus-sum competition to know that good rules help all of the players.

The Chinese seek an advantage; the US seeks a level playing field. I don't say that as moral judgment. American commercial sophistication makes a level playing field good enough. Chinese inexperience makes a level playing field "unfair." Until China is prosperous enough to realize that cooperative competition is the route to the next step up the economic ladder, we can expect different values to result in unsettled relations.