Oliver Conway

Because, you know, we talk so much about the trade war with the US and the tariffs and so on.

Less is being sold to America, but it turns out China still has plenty of willing customers, more than ever in other parts of the world.

It really does.

And to be honest, this was always the argument made by trade experts and by the Chinese government itself.

You know, China is such a manufacturing powerhouse.

If you can compete with the scale of its workforce, the efficiency of its supply chains, just how much can be produced at a certain standard for a certain price, even though...

it would be potentially losing an incredible consumer market like the United States.

There are other markets that are very, very happy to step in and buy Chinese goods.

Southeast Asia, where I am, you're talking about 500 million people.

You've, of course, got Europe.

It's not great from the point of view of the domestic manufacturers of the world and in Europe.

If

a big flood of very cheap Chinese goods that might have been destined for the US are now coming to this part of the world.

But it does mean that there is the chance of buying lots of cheap Chinese goods.

And China has clearly managed to plug that hole left by the drop in US orders with other regions.

And if you look at it from the point of view of the Chinese exporters themselves, you know, Chinese businesses themselves,

They're looking at the geopolitical situation and they're thinking to themselves, yeah, the American market is incredibly important, the biggest market that China has typically sold to.

But is it in our interests to be partnering and investing in selling to the US, you know, in the medium and the long term?

And clearly the answer for many exporters has been no.

Our Asia business correspondent, Nick Marsh.