For several years now our correspondents across Asia have been reporting on issues that point to a new, defining story of our time: US-China decoupling.
Evidence of the downturn in trade relations, namely the Trump administration’s moves to curtail supplies to Chinese tech champions such as ZTE, Huawei and SMIC, has been glaringly obvious. Countries in the region have long taken the spiralling dispute seriously, with Taiwan in 2018 giving incentives to companies to move factories back home and the retreat from China, in favour of Vietnam, by South Korean tech giant Samsung.
But although the exceptions attract less attention, there have been recent developments that challenge the wider narrative. For many companies, while life has indeed become more difficult and the risks associated with dealing with Beijing heightened, business with China does continue, and at pace.