As tariffs put trade between China and the US in peril, Chinese businesses ponder the future

The high-stakes tariff war has come more than 20 years after China — with the help of the United States — joined the World Trade Organization and began to see its economy soar on luring foreign investments and exporting to the U.S. and other Western markets. At a port in the Chinese city of Shanghai, ships heading to the U.S. had almost vanished by Thursday, the day after Trump's tariff on China took effect, according to a report by the financial news site Caixin. For the longer term, the tariff war is likely to prompt Chinese businesses to diversify their supply chains and move part of their manufacturing capacity outside of China, and even to the United States, said Hu, the consultant.