Walled off
China’s ongoing trade war with the US — which has involved disputes and tariffs over everything from steel to washing machines, corn to cars, and has most recently focused on the increasingly important semiconductor industry — has accelerated China’s transition to a domestically-focused economy. Indeed, as we charted about last year, China is no longer America’s largest source of goods imports.
Bear in a China shop
Figures from the US Census Bureau reveal that, with data recorded up until the end of November, the US had imported just $393bn of goods from China in 2023, down a staggering 21% on the year before, and only just ahead of the $388bn that the US imported from Canada. Furthermore, on Wednesday, China’s stock market had its worst trading day since 2022, as investors sold on concerns about Chinese real estate, slowing growth, and demographics.
Xi Jinping wants China to untangle itself from the western world, building a more domestic-focused China to solidify his position at home. That is a tricky tightrope to walk when hundreds of millions of people have come to rely on the prosperity wrought by a booming economy — and it’s made even more difficult to navigate when demographic winds shift strongly against you.
