When Washington fired the opening salvo of its tariff war, slapping punishing reciprocal duties on Chinese exports, Beijing got the message loud and clear. A *** per cent tariff, even briefly imposed before being dialled back for negotiations, was not a warning shot. It signalled that the familiar framework governing China–US trade relations had effectively collapsed, and that Chinese industry could no longer rely on the American market as a stable or predictable outlet.
As it would have been, China responded the way a seasoned manufacturing superpower knows how: by moving faster, wider, and smarter. Supply chains were reassessed, export strategies were rewritten, and production itself began to shift across borders. Rather than absorbing the shock, Chinese manufacturers moved to deflect it, accelerating changes that had already been quietly taking shape beneath the surface.
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