Seems to be a lot of china-related articles lately from heavy hitters like wsj, nytimes and bloomberg. And in a negative tone tinged with war metaphors as you noted. I'm guessing it has to do with the "trade war" ( another war metaphor ) between Trump and Xi. I wonder what the chinese media's take on it is? Would be great if there was a site with chinese articles translated into english. My guess is they are using the same war metaphors.

Actually not. I check Chinese news sites twice a month. Most of the international news is about the success of OBOR and multilateralism blah blah. News about trade war is relatively rare. War metaphors are often used for domestic issues though, such as poverty and corruption.