China’s decision to forgo special rights in the WTO shows that it takes its great power responsibility seriously. It wants to advance trade cooperation with developed economies and with Global South. A trade upturn with the United States in 2026 is much anticipated.

Beijing’s announcement regarding future World Trade Organization negotiations is strategic. It represents both a willingness to promote WTO reform and an institutional adjustment to support high-quality domestic development and opening-up to the world.

China’s economic struggles have implications for its trading partners across the globe, notably in Europe. What can Beijing’s fight against ‘involution’ tell the world about its future trading prospects?

The special administrative region has become a pioneer in institutional and technological innovation. Its recent initiative represents a significant opportunity for the region and a crucial step in China’s broader efforts toward the internationalization of the yuan.

Chinese manufacturing has come a long way – and by some measures, it is stronger than ever. Whereas foreign-invested enterprises were the driving force behind China’s manufacturing exports 20 years ago, most of these firms are now leaving China, having lost their market share to domestic competitors. And these dominant Chinese companies are not limited to the low-value-added production of the past. They are global leaders in many high-tech industries, such as semiconductors and electric vehicles, where they hold an absolute price advantage.

China’s economy today bears an unsettling resemblance to Japan’s in the 1990s, when the collapse of a housing bubble led to prolonged stagnation. But Japan’s “lost decades” were not the inevitable result of irreversible trends; they reflected policy blunders, rooted in a flawed understanding of the challenges the economy faced. Will Chinese policymakers make the same mistakes?

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.

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

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.

Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariff” policy is intended to push back against globalization, but its inherent structural problems will only accelerate the trend of “de-Americanization” worldwide.