There'd be a lot of tech industry money at stake in a Trump trade war with China

Donald Trump rode a wave of American discontent on his way to the White House. A major chunk of it, which spoke to a big swath of voters, centered on trade, and the desire to bring a certain type of working-class job back to America.

Trump's most frequent target in this vein has been China. The president-elect has previously pledged to declare China a currency manipulator (something economists have disputed) and has threatened to slap as much as a 45% blanket tariff on Chinese imports (something he can't legally do in one fell swoop).

We don't know if Trump will try to follow through on these claims, but now that he's in a position to do so, a Chinese state-run newspaper suggested the country would retaliate should Trump's bark turn to bite. Sales of iPhones and Boeing airplanes in the country were mentioned as vulnerable to a potential setback.

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It all has people fearing a trade war - and that could mean particularly tricky days for the tech industry. As this chart from Statista shows, "computers and electronics" was the second leading export category from the US to China last year. If trade policies between the two nations become more aggressive, that business could take a notable step back - while prices on electronics in the US could go up.

Statista