China’s weapon of choice in its ‘war’ with the US? Soybeans, obvs

In the past few weeks, tensions between China and the US have been high. President Trump has angered Chinese politicians by putting charges (or tariffs) on importing Chinese goods, and China has responded.

What it means: There's been a lot of talk of a trade war between the two countries, but essentially it's just a game of tit-for-tat.

Since his campaign days, Trump has promised to take a protectionist What's this?  approach to trading. That means making it more expensive to import goods from abroad by putting tariffs, which in theory encourages people to buy US products instead.

But there's a problem: China has responded by putting its own tariffs on many US products. Chinese state TV is reporting that 106 US products are affected, including a 25% tariff on soybeans, cars and chemicals. Many US farmers rely on the sale of soybeans to China, so they might struggle.