Western policy analysts refer to an “export surge” from China, but China’s exports to developed markets have stagnated for years.
However, China’s exports to the Global South have doubled in recent years. Exports to every region of the Global South – Asia, Latin America, Africa, Middle East/North Africa and Central Asia have risen.
Some of China’s export success in the developing world, reflects a new kind of triangular trade motivated by the 25% tariff on some $200 billion of Chinese imports which the Trump administration in the USA imposed in 2019.
China ships components and capital goods to Mexico, Vietnam, India and other countries, which then assemble them into finished products for sale in the United States.