Things ended badly for last idiot who declared war on the whole world. Her name was Cixi the empress dowager.
That's a very interesting point of history that you brought up. The insignificant nobody me could write a thesis & get another PhD, filled with citations as evidences of my objectiveness thru numerous sources freely available in this information age, but I would not do so, as SBF is not an University that would honor or award, & I believed that Knowledge must be shared, to sieve facts from fictions & misguided opinions to help Humanity progress.
Thus in brief, as much as I can:- None needs to read it.
1a. When China was discovered by the Western World, it began trade & bought about exchange of ideas & ideals, such as noodle, paper money based upon trust & much much more valuable goods & technologies, even guns & canons.
However by the time the indolent & cunning Empress Cixi seized power from her son, stupid as she was as she was a mere concubine when she started out, she did listened to others, wise or self serving, to enhance her HOLD ON POWER.
She decided, based upon advises from others, that Qing China was losing its rich resources to the West thru trade of valuable items such as jade, precious minerals, works of arts for mere trinkets from the West such as beads, wine, etc. Thus she changed the balance that all items from China to the West would be traded in GOLD.
1b. Trade almost stopped between the East & West, but the West were not morons. They found out that the Chinese People whom were mostly peasants, sought for opium to escape the drudgery of often deadly & brutal Dictatorial Rule in their daily lives -beg, borrow or steal to buy such harmful drugs, & thus demanded GOLD in exchange for such goods that the pitiful Chinese, even right up to the royal elites, wanted, which eventually led to an escalation of war, both internal by Chinese citizens against the Empress & external thru foreign nations, that saw the end of her empire....
1c. Her mistake was that instead of negotiations for fair deal, a win-win solution for all as she & her empire would be in the losing end, lacking in resources & technology along with already constant rebellion daily, she declared an all out war on trade & the outcome became history.
2. While history often repeats itself, currently Elected PrezTrump had realized REALITIES & decided to end the rot of what China under CCP is doing to USA - hollowing out its industries that creates loss of jobs in USA, making those MNCs reveal their trade secrets, copying & bullying them, while making cheap products thru economies of scale & especially 9-9-6 work culture treatment of its own citizens to produce those products, selling deadly fentanyl to Americans, etc, etc.,
PrezTrump would be successful, as he is a Democratically Elected President with support, & furthermore, USA is a migrant Nation made up of many, many talents from all over the World as well as it is rich in resources - agriculture & mineral, which needs no imports from any other Nation. Also, it is a Rule of Law Nation, propped up by its sacred Constitution, that had earned trust Worldwide for over 200yrs, thru its intelligence & diligence, no matter what detractors attempts to spew.
PrezTrump did not declare a trade war upon the World, but only sought for FAIR trade, NOT FREE trade that had saw how USA had been taken advantage of. Furthermore, he is open to negotiations, which means while he might not get what he originally demanded, tough stances can be soften thru win-win solutions for all parties.
Also, PrezTrump did not point a gun at anyone that it must trade with USA. Each Earthborn Human still have Free Will & Freedom of choice. Only just be wise with such choices.