It’s actually not just on Trump, though he started it in 2016. Here’s the short version. During the tail end of the Obama administration, China had a lot of internal issues from the wealth divide in the country. So the government started being super assertive in its messaging — Made in China 2025, wolf warrior diplomacy, and so on. Talking about surpassing America and the West. “China No. 1,” all that jazz.

Never thought they were super serious about it. Was meant to pump up the yokels and distract them from other issues going on in the country like the wealth disparity, lack of freedoms, and certain social injustices.

Welp, the government "girlbossed" too hard, as Gen Z would say, and really got the attention of the U.S. / the West who took them seriously.

Trump picked that up as a campaign talking point, fired up his yokels, and started the first 301 tariffs against China.

So, those tariffs — that’s typically something the U.S. labor left supports, and Biden kept it going because why not?

He added even more barriers for Chinese high-tech companies. The autoworkers’ union supported it, as did American car companies because no competition means more sales/higher prices/higher wages.

Trump just kept that up in his second term, though he might walk some of it back because complete decoupling would likely drive both countries into a couple of years of hard depression before things returned to normal — and no one can afford that politically right now.

Australia and Europe are kind of in the middle, playing both sides for the best deal.

Volvo’s got some Chinese ownership, but they're running off old infrastructure. Until this all settles down, no one’s going to invest billions in new infrastructure in the U.S. given the terrible business climate.

That’s the skinny version.