The other--more suspicious and dismissed as conspiratorial--benefactor of of this trade war Russia and the bolstering of Russian industries. America is importing a lot of Russian steel [1] and aluminum [2], and Russia is been ready to fill the food gap for China that they used to get from the US [3].

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-25/under-tru...

[2] https://time.com/5651345/rusal-investment-braidy-kentucky/

[3] https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3013549/ru...