China has been retaliating, but the fact is that these small moves don't really hurt Chinese interests that significantly.
Take Tiktok as an example, the core technology and algorithm remain in Bytedance control and their US Tiktok subsidiary is the biggest single stakeholder in the "joint venture". This really isn't that damaging to Chinese business interests and it would've been more damaging politically for Trump to actually go through with the full ban, which is why he did a partial TACO on this issue.
Retaliation also needs to be proportionate, that's how you get escalation dominance and create incentives for the other side to back down and disincentivize further actions. Not playing all of your strongest cards immediately isn't evidence that you don't have those cards in your hand.
Some recent examples of this:
Retaliation against Panama:
New law against unlawful extraterritorial jurisdiction that just passed:
Take Tiktok as an example, the core technology and algorithm remain in Bytedance control and their US Tiktok subsidiary is the biggest single stakeholder in the "joint venture". This really isn't that damaging to Chinese business interests and it would've been more damaging politically for Trump to actually go through with the full ban, which is why he did a partial TACO on this issue.
Retaliation also needs to be proportionate, that's how you get escalation dominance and create incentives for the other side to back down and disincentivize further actions. Not playing all of your strongest cards immediately isn't evidence that you don't have those cards in your hand.
Some recent examples of this:
Retaliation against Panama:
New law against unlawful extraterritorial jurisdiction that just passed: