(1)The Chinese tariffs are simply a component of their overall predatory trade practice.
The bottom line issues are their government control and setting of the wage structure in their country, which is maintained at world-beating advantage by a number of interlocking and reinforcing methods. No expert denies they are doing this, and Westerners who mistakenly assume there is 'economic freedom' in China are indulging a fraud, intended for Western consumption. Some of the phoney free traders are comfortable with admitting this, and contend that as long as China is willing to subsidize exports, via the artificially-depressed wages, not to mention other State aids, to the U.S., that is swell. They could care less about distortionary impacts on our economy...being under the direct control or influence of an enemy government.
With that predicate proposition made, it is my belief that if we were to take action we can expect the following:
(2) Negligible Chinese Employment impact of U.S. retaliation.
The Chinese partner firms who hire the labor and pay the actual wages to the employees are thinly-veiled fronts for the PLA and Party Princelings. The loss of the U.S. trade would be primarily a loss of technology access. In view of the fact that the export sector would just be reassigned by their Communist overlords to other "State" objectives, it seems unlikely that there would be 'unemployment' albeit it is certainly possible they would get even lower wages...going back to their old state industries. The export sector labor (244 million strong), as of a couple years ago, typically makes 27 cents an hour and the domestic sector got like 15 cents an hour.