Last week, a pack of rice crackers at Sun Vin Grocery store on Mulberry Street in New York City’s Chinatown cost $4.99. But this week, after President Donald Trump’s tariffs on items imported from China took effect,

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.