Wall Street’s turmoil is both a crisis and an opportunity. Those who adapt by diversifying into non-dollar assets or betting on emerging markets as wealth and power are redefined could come out ahead.

In the week of 25th May 2025, Kuala Lumpur played host to a landmark event: the inaugural ASEAN-GCC-China Summit. It brought together Southeast Asian nations, the Gulf states, and China - three pillars of the emerging multipolar order - in a signal moment of strategic realignment. While headlines may focus on trade, energy, and infrastructure cooperation, the deeper story lies in a quiet revolution in how the world’s fastest-growing economies trade, settle, and invest - increasingly without the U.S. dollar.

Values laid out by China and the United States — equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit — will keep trade tensions under control through practical results and stabilize the important trade relationship.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s unwarranted global tariff war, which began on April 2, 2025, with steep 145 percent tariffs on China, alerted economists to unforeseen global consequences. As China’s economy relied heavily on manufactured goods, and with the U.S. as its largest export destination, the Trump administration believed that imposing tariffs could weaken China and compel it to comply with its terms and conditions. Beijing, well-prepared in advance, proved this belief wrong. China’s resolute response within weeks forced the U.S. to enter negotiations, which took place from May 10 to 12 in Geneva, in which the two sides agreed to suspend tariffs for 90 days. The success of Beijing’s policy relied on several factors.

The recent China-U.S. economic and trade talks have helped ease trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Tariffs have been reduced significantly, lifting the pessimistic mood. However, a sustainable trade agreement has not yet been sealed.

The deal will spell the end of WTO’s system of setting tariffs by consensus, which has been in operation since the inception of the world body in 1995. It will usher in a new era in which Washington alone will set tariff rates.

China’s new export licensing system strengthens its control over key rare earth elements, deepening supply chain risks. Although new processing facilities are emerging abroad, they won’t soon offset China’s dominance, prolonging global uncertainty.

Despite de-escalation in Geneva, trillions of dollars may have been lost in the unwarranted trade wars.

China’s rise to dominance in electric vehicles, much like Japan’s earlier challenge to U.S. automakers, has prompted an aggressive American response, including tariffs and industrial policy aimed at countering Beijing. But the past offers a valuable lens for understanding today’s EV race and what may come next.

A trade deal between China and the United States is nowhere in sight. The mountain of issues could take a long time and enormous effort to resolve. It’s certainly not going to happen in three or four weeks, as Trump has suggested. More likely, it will be months, if not years.