US-China decoupling is already happening, says Donald Trump’s former security chief John Bolton, also calling for open borders for Hongkongers

Economic decoupling between the United States and China is “not only possible, but is happening”, according to John Bolton, the former national security adviser-turned staunch critic of US President Donald Trump.

Referring to decoupling, Bolton, a long-time China hawk who has criticised Trump for going too easy on Beijing, said that people will not “wake up tomorrow and find that it's occurred”. Businesses are already looking at incrementally moving their supply chains out of China because they are fed up with the sort of “state espionage that would boggle the mind of a US or European” company, Bolton said.

Bolton’s claims are anecdotally true, with large companies such as Apple, Samsung and Nintendo shifting production out of the mainland to enjoy lower-cost manufacturing primarily in Vietnam, but also to avoid trade war tariffs applied by US customs authorities.

Financial decoupling, where the United States would cut China or Hong Kong’s access to US dollar-settling markets, has also “been raised as a possibility”, Bolton said.

The US has also moved to force Chinese companies who do not meet more stringent documentation criteria to delist from US stock markets, while reports have claimed the Trump administration has discussed the “nuclear option” of restricting dollar access.

In a video address to Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondent Club on Wednesday night, Bolton suggested that a Trump victory in November’s general election would lead to a reopening of trade talks with China in pursuit of another trade deal, a move strongly discouraged by the former official, who served under every Republican president back to Ronald Reagan.