Amid geopolitical tensions, the term ‘de-risking’ entered the global lexicon last year, and China has lost billions’ worth of investment. The programme When Titans Clash looks at the trends and what lies ahead for the Chinese economy. Chinese workers on an assembly line making robot vacuums. In some other companies, it is the end of the line for their manufacturing operations in China.MEXICO CITY and SHANGHAI: For years, the United States’ top trading partner has been China.
That has now changed — Mexico is in top spot, as of last year. It is the culmination of a trend that began during the Trump presidency, when tariffs were slapped on Chinese exports to the US. It is also an example of the top trends in “de-risking” amidst all the geopolitical tensions: nearshoring or friend-shoring. Nearshoring means to locate production close to one’s consumers; friend-shoring is the policy of locating production in friendly countries. In Mexico, the result is a manufacturing boo