I will argue that Xi is playing along with Trump. He is however playing slowly to maximize what he gets from the negotiations.
All in the trade war news is smoke, obsfuscation of the reality
“I will argue that Xi is playing along with Trump.”
I suspect that the stats concerning how well the Chinese economy is going are complete fabrications and that their economy is poised in a knife edge with total collapse on both sides of the blade. If that’s true, how much can Xi concede and not lose his position from something as inexorable as the economic equivalent of gravity? His only real choice is to take the blame himself, even though the policies of the communist party and general corruption in the government(’s) is what set them up, or to blame Trump?
On Trump’s side, he has to decide whether he can declare victory with whatever he can get out of Xi so Xi can save face and Trump’s supporters can be satisfied. But the situation is so unfair, so unequal, that Trump needs to get a lot from Xi to even approach parity in trade. The imbalance is something like five to one in China’s favor. Even given that, it isn’t enough to stave off collapse for much longer. Xi would also need to devalue his currency and cut back on their military spending, among other things that are equally unlikely.