Massive tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Chinese imports are aimed at wrecking the world's second-largest economy to achieve his iconic "Make America Great Again" promise, analysts say.

In the run-up to the midterm congressional elections in November and with an eye on his 2020 re-election campaign, Trump, who took office in January 2017, is set to step up efforts meant to prove to the American public that he is serious about curbing the yawning U.S. deficit with China.

Trump has said he remains open to talks with China to end an escalating trade war, but Washington and Beijing are expected to continue play what one analyst called a "game of chicken" by imposing tit-for-tat tariffs on each other's goods for a prolonged period.

(Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in November 2017)

The United States on Monday invoked tariffs on an additional $200 billion in Chinese imports. With this third round of tariffs, Washington is now taxing around half of the products it imports from Beijing each year.

China immediately took retaliatory action, slapping additional tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. imports, which means Beijing has so far levied tariffs on more than 80 percent of all goods from Washington, together with the previous ones.

The United States and China have already imposed tariffs on a total of $50 billion of each other's products -- $34 billion in July and $16 billion in August. The U.S. tariffs were in response to China's alleged intellectual property and technology theft.

The U.S. goods trade deficit with China totaled $375.23 billion last year, nearly half the U.S. trade deficit globally, according to U.S. Commerce Department data.

Although the $50 billion tariffs mainly targete industrial products, the latest tranche includes daily necessities such as furniture, sweepers and handbags, which will drag down China's exports -- a major driver of the country's economic growth.

Trump has also strongly urged U.S. companies that have manufactured their goods in China to move their production bases to the United States.

Trump is "serious about containing China's economic influence" in the United States to "revive" U.S. industries, a diplomat in Beijing from a European nation said.

China, which has an abundant labor force and substantial resources in raw materials, has established its status as the "world's factory" by inviting enterprises from abroad and obtained foreign currencies by boosting its exports to the United States.

In 2010, China overtook Japan as the world's second-biggest economy in nominal gross domestic product.

The leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently pledged to create global champions in robotics, artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies at the state's initiative under the "Made in China 2025" blueprint.

"Trump has apparently regarded China with hostility," attributing a downturn in U.S. domestic manufacturers to economic expansion of the Asian power, the diplomat said.

In an attempt to emphasize his accomplishments ahead of the midterm and presidential elections, Trump "wouldn't stop bashing China soon," he added.

The new U.S. tariffs are initially set at 10 percent by the end of this year and will increase to 25 percent from Jan. 1.

Moreover, Trump has threatened to impose duties on a further $267 billion in Chinese imports -- effectively taxing everything Americans buy from the Asian nation.

Toru Nishihama, chief economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo, said that the intensifying trade war between the United States and China is unlikely to be resolved through dialogue in the near future.

Beijing has implemented measures to prop up the economy, but it is inevitable that China's economy will slow down, Nishihama said.

If the trade war lasts, China's growth rate would fall by up to 0.5 percentage point this year, the country's state-run television reported last week, citing economic experts.

In 2017, China's economy accelerated for the first time in seven years, growing 6.9 percent from the previous year, on the back of robust exports and internal demand. Beijing has set a growth rate target of around 6.5 percent for 2018.