> It started 24 years ago with the Clinton administration granting China "most favored nation" status.[0] A controversial move at the time, and one that broke a one of Clinton's campaign promises.

I think there is more information than in the article on most favoured nation status that might give useful context. The article discusses a relatively narrow set of tariffs on certain items produced in China, largely tied to human rights violations in China; MFN predates this by quite some time.

Most favoured nation (MFN) and its counterpart national treatment (NT) are cornerstones of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)[0], which was a product of the World War 2 era treaties designed in large part to prevent the sort of interstate acrimony that could lead to World War 3.

The GATT mandates that signatories — including the USA — adhere to MFN and NT, which respectively oblige states to not apply tariffs to one country and not another, and to not favour domestic industry over foreign by way of subsidy or tariff or other market-distorting unfairness by the state. When a state violates MFN or NT, any harmed state has standing to apply a sort of reciprocal treatment, namely they have the colour of right to apply market distorting tariffs and subsidies of their own.

A recent example is the USA application of a tariff on imported steel from Europe, which entitles the European Union to apply a reciprocal tariffs on imports from the USA, such as bourbon.

The GATT evolved into the World Trade Organization (WTO), which routinely determines the merits and quantum of damages associated with often complex accusations of violations of MFN and NT.

The origin China-USA MFN and NT goes back in principle at least to the GATT, which in turn is based on the failures of the inter-war period that lead to WW2.

Which is all to say, it's not accurate to state that the Clinton administration granted MFN status to China (broadly speaking, anyway), and I'm not certain that in the broader context of the complex history of trade relations that any start of the trade disputes we see today can be so precisely pinpointed.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Agreement_on_Tariffs_a...