The Trump administration's tariff war with China is most often seen through the lens of the economy. But to many economists, the bigger threat is that Trump's global trade gambit will erode the United States’ main source of global authority: the long-term geopolitical relationships it has cultivated over nearly a century.

With travel warnings and revoked visas, the two superpowers locked in a bruising trade war may make students and tourists their bargaining chips.

A professor at M.I.T. on how Xi Jinping is likely to respond to U.S. tariffs and why the standoff won’t weaken the Chinese Communist Party’s grip on power.