Trump tariffs: West's pain, China's gain?

Asia / Pacific

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THE DEBATE
THE DEBATE © FRANCE 24
From the show
The Debate
Reading time 1 min

Donald Trump fired the first shot, but is he ready for this fight? With China's president on the second leg of a regional tour of Vietnam, Malaysia and later Cambodia, it looks like the coalition-building phase of a conflict that's sure to upend global supply chains and rewrite the rules of globalisation as they've stood since Beijing entered the World Trade Organization in 2001.

To win a trade war, you need strength and resilience: not just from the foot soldiers and officers in the trenches of trading floors, factory warehouses and boardrooms, but from the civilians back home. Who of China and the United States has a more resilient population, one with the skills to adapt in a crisis and make the right choices?

And what do third parties say? Do they pick a side? The current model of globalisation depends on free movement of goods, services, people and ideas. Is innovation possible if all the planet's superpowers opt for top-down models where autocrats and oligarchs rule?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Alessandro Xenos.