The Trump administration’s largest anticipated trade move against China has become bogged down in an internal debate focused in large part on legal concerns, even as Beijing is stepping up a frantic lobbying campaign to avert confrontation. 

President Donald Trump launched the investigation into China’s intellectual property regime and the forced transfer of technology by US companies last summer, declaring at the time that “this is just the beginning” of a promised fight against unfair trade practices around the world. 

The so-called Section 301 investigation has since then become the centrepiece of a trade crackdown on China that the US is eager to launch this year. Expectations in Washington are that it would lead to a combination of investment measures and tariffs aimed at Beijing, with which it last year amassed a $375bn trade deficit in goods.