China began de-risking well before Trump's trade fury

Beijing has been working quietly even as Trump attacks the very foundation of American supremacy

- NARAYAN RAMACHANDRAN

This past month, the international press was full of news about unilateral actions taken by the US under President Donald Trump. There is much analysis of his 'reciprocal' tariffs, possible theories behind why they were imposed, their impact on financial assets—most particularly on US bonds—and his pause for 90 days of all country-specific tariffs except those on China, which were increased further.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the well-publicized news was that China had matched US tariffs at 125%. And Beijing followed that action with the statement that "China will simply ignore it if Washington persists with its tariff number games." This statement indicates China's belief that the magnitude of mutual tariffs has reached 'trade embargo' levels. If these trade barriers stay in place, it means each country must substitute the other's imports, which will affect the US far more than China.