Trump's victory calls upon us to reshape our globalization game

India should let in Chinese FDI and technology to make the most of its China-plus-one opportunity

- MANOJ PANT

US President-elect Donald Trump is now firmly set at the centre of the country's polity, with control on the Senate, House of Representatives and judiciary. During his election campaign, he announced some radical measures on immigration and trade relations. Importantly, with an anti-China hawk Marco Rubio as secretary of state, Trump might actually proceed on his China agenda. There is no doubt that international relations and the global geo-economic order are in for a shake-up.

A separate but not unrelated development in recent weeks is the emerging thaw in India-China border relations and a return to the situation that prevailed before the Galwan clash between the militaries of the two countries in 2020. As observers have rightly noted, this thaw is a consequence of China's declining economic fortunes in the last one year, strained relations with the US in the last few years and a desire to not fight too many external battles at this point in time. One thing is clear. Now that Trump will be firmly in the saddle, come 20 January, China's economic relations with the US and EU will not improve much for at least the coming year. Technology theft bothers the US the most, as it has been running the largest trade deficits for the last decade or, while depending on technology for a large chunk of its exports. On the other hand, the EU finds its eastern borders unsettled in Ukraine and is forced to support America's anti-China stance.