As the trade dispute escalates between China and the US, classic Chinese movies about the “War to Resist America and Aid Korea”, as the Korean War of the 1950s is known in China, have made a reappearance on Chinese prime-time state television.

This is one of the many signs in China hinting at what analysts believe will now be a protracted trade conflict with Washington. Reluctant to accept  humbling terms demanded by Donald Trump to end the two countries’ year-long trade spat, Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist president, is preparing to lead his country into an all-out trade conflict with the world’s leading economic and technological power, just as Mao Zedong sent Chinese “volunteers” to take on US forces during the Korean War for four long, bloody years in the 1950s.

“If the bulk of this agreement is about China doing this and China doing that, that’s totally unpalatable to a domestic audience,” said one person briefed on the talks in Beijing.