The recent trade truce has provided a welcome cessation of hostilities between the U.S. and China. But given the festering issue of technology, and China's need to acquire more of it, the ceasefire agreed on the weekend of May 19-20 will only be temporary.
For all its other faults, President Donald Trump's trade brinkmanship has rightly placed renewed focus on China's need to acquire foreign intellectual property. China, for its part, shows no sign of backing away from grand plans to build advanced manufacturing industries, most of which require technologies from abroad. These two strategies place the world's largest economies on a path to near-certain further conflict.
