The only ones that have something to lose from this are the Americans. The Chinese have the entire world left to trade their goods with...
Perhaps a contracted economy will be the only result, and perhaps voters would know better next time. But if they don't after 4 more years its over and gone. Wish other countries had this escape route...
Both have something to lose out of this trade war, the Chinese can get hit pretty hard by not having American consumers -- and Americans (and American businesses) are sure going to miss the cheap labor that China provides for many American products.
So both people are going to be hurt here, but China does need to be reigned in on as they truly have been taking advantage of the US for a longtime now. As the Chinese have been able to steal intellectual property, without any real government oversight, for a long time now. It's about time someone stops them.
Yes, this will affect not only the US and Chinese economies, but the whole world is under threat.