US-China decoupling: has China cast aside US threat with booming exports in 2020?

China’s quick economic rebound from the coronavirus pandemic has ‘consolidated its core status in global supply chains’, Chinese analysts say

Exports surged 21.1 per cent year on year in November, with China’s surplus with the US at its highest point since Donald Trump took office

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China was the first major economy to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic’s impact. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 12:00am, 9 Dec 2020Updated: 8:49am, 9 Dec 2020

China’s significance in global trade has received a clear boost in 2020, with exports surging in defiance of speculation early in the year that it could be marginalised in a post-pandemic world, according to analysts.

Beijing’s concern in spring, when an estimated 200 million workers were out of jobs, that China’s status as the factory of the world could be undermined has proven unfounded as the year enters its final month.

China was the first major economy to bounce back from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and, after reporting 21.1 per cent year-on-year export growth last month, few would say its role in global value chains has diminished.

Wang Jun, the chief economist at Zhongyuan Bank, said the coronavirus in 2020 has “consolidated China’s core status in the global supply chains”.

Investors now have a renewed understanding of China’s “unique” advantages that were sometimes taken for granted before the coronavirus, including a large and complete industrial production system, reliable infrastructure and a huge domestic market, said Wang.