Decoupling From China Accelerates

Democracies are restricting goods from China, increasing the supply from friendly countries, and leveraging market access to expand decoupling to third countries

Aerial view of shipping containers sitting stacked at Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai, China, on May 19, 2021. Shen Chunchen/VCG via Getty Images

Commentary

Decoupling from China has a history that extends back to the Cold War, but has renewed and is gathering speed. It most recently restarted in the U.S. technology sector, and is now moving to the world’s most important economies in Europe and Asia. The mainstream media is ablaze with what a year ago was seen as a crank idea, and what Beijing propagandists attempt to denigrate as “Cold War thinking.”