Investors are worried Donald Trump’s protectionist crusade will set off an economic crisis or at the very least a sharp slowdown in China. Over the past month, international investors have shunned emerging market bonds and currencies, including the Chinese renminbi.

Despite the stimulus Beijing announced last week, the Chinese stock market remains down about 13 per cent this year. So are there grounds for viewing Trump as a kind of modern-day Achilles, driven into a confrontation with his adversary that won’t end until the latter is defeated? No offence to the president but he doesn’t quite have the stuff that Homeric heroes are made of.

True, Trump’s entourage includes advisers like Peter Navarro for trade and John Bolton for national security, who postulate that China is a strategic or an even existential threat to the US.