The new year promises to be exceptionally rough for the always-complicated relationship between the U.S. and China. As President-Elect Donald Trump threatens tariffs, China’s leaders heed calls to prepare countermeasures. There’s a chance that Mr. Trump’s saber-rattling could accelerate a push already underway toward reforms in China’s domestic capital markets.

Those changes could make it easier for Chinese tech companies to raise money at home, doing away with the trend of companies such as Alibaba and Tencent listing in the U.S. or Hong Kong. And that could have implications for the U.S. pension funds and other investors that have profited from the supersized gains of China’s rise.