It occurs to me that the Chinese government may actually love the tit for tat that is happening with the United States right now regarding tariffs. Not because they like the idea of an economic downturn, but because it would give them the perfect excuse if an economic downturn does happen.
My impression is that China has a lot of economic time bombs that they have managed to stave off so far. While the Chinese government may be confident that it can continue to navigate through these economic time bombs, they may also have a realistic assessment that this cannot continue forever, that just one failure to contain a serious economic downturn may be the end of their political power.
Then suddenly a certain President of the United States of America practically volunteers to serve as an obvious villain in any potential economic downturn by providing the perfect excuse and scapegoat. The Chinese government almost certainly does not want an economic downturn to happen, but if one has to, it would be harder to find a better time for one which they can use to turn away any blame from themselves. They would not even have to lie about the cause. If this is their thinking, they must be ecstatic about the current situation.
This is all baseless speculation, but it does make one wonder if there is more than pride in their strong response to Trump’s tariff proclamations.