‘How Trump pushed the world towards Beijing’

This is apropos three letters to the Editor titled ‘How Trump pushed the world towards Beijing’ carried by the newspaper on Saturday, Sunday and yesterday. With annual trade volumes exceeding $4 trillion and deep supply-chain integration across Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America, China has become economically indispensable to much of the world. The Belt and Road Initiative, spanning more than 140 countries, has embedded Chinese capital, logistics, and construction into the physical and economic foundations of entire regions. For many states, disengaging from China is no longer a policy option—it is an economic impossibility.

Europe’s own posture toward Beijing illustrates this reality. Only a few years ago, European policy focused on “de-risking” and restricting Chinese investment in strategic sectors. Today, that posture is being recalibrated at unprecedented speed. High-level dialogues on industrial cooperation, green technology, electric vehicles, and infrastructure investment reflect a recognition that Europe’s economic competitiveness is tied to engagement with China, not isolation from it. Canada’s recalibration mirrors this logic. Energy partnerships with the Gulf, expanded Asian trade, and financial diversification are not ideological statements; they are strategic hedges against a United States that has signaled its willingness to weaponise economic interdependence.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026