A tanker ready to be loaded with liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Rudong LNG terminal of CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation) in Jiangsu province, September 4, 2018. Credit: Imaginechina via AP Images
Who does China trade with in order to keep the lights on? Not the United States.
Once burgeoning U.S. exports of fossil fuels to China are drying up as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the expiration of the U.S.-China Phase One trade deal that was signed back in 2020. Europe’s scramble for a reliable supply of natural gas has led American producers to redirect their supplies across the Atlantic; meanwhile, Russia is turning to China to buy up its excess supply.
Should current trends continue, the result would be a reorienting of the global energy trade in ways not seen since the end of the Cold War, with the movement of commodities aligning with hardening political blocs. Some experts say that energy trade flows may be just the start, with its realignment a harbinger of things to come for other industries, including agriculture and manufacturing.
This week, The Wire looks at how the U.S.-China trade in energy commodities has changed this year,
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Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative under Donald Trump, reflects on his decision to launch the trade war with China and begin the process of "strategic decoupling" — a process he says the U.S. must see through to the end.
