In the summer of 2018, when former President Donald Trump launched a trade war with Beijing, the Chinese economy was gaining on the United States, and popular opinion suggested it could soon become the world’s largest.

Reliance on cheap Russian energy along with brutal competition from China has hit the German economy hard, and President-elect Trump's threat of tariffs are creating more uncertainty.

For the second largest economy, China, a big source of concern is tariffs against Chinese products. During the campaign trail, Trump had stated that he would impose at least 60% tariffs on Chinese imports and 20% tariffs on imports from all other countries.