ZTE’s shares leapt on Thursday as the US government threw it a lifeline, but that limited truce does not change the fact that US-Chinese trade wars are intensifying, and telecoms vendors will be among those damaged on both sides. Myson Robles-Bruce, a semiconductor analyst at IHS Markit, put it well when he said the trade battles in the chip industry will be “a bruising zero-sum game injurious to both sides in which there are no winners”. Escalating tit-for-tat tariffs, as well as probes on the grounds of ‘national security’, are being mounted by both countries, with the semiconductor sector a particular hotbed – and one which affects the whole equipment and device chain. The risks were highlighted in a week…