The discontents of decoupling

Economic delinking with China makes no sense for India; investment, growth and public welfare will suffer

Two years ago, the United States accused China of using coercive methods to transfer technology from US firms to China, as also of outright theft of know-how. Soon, this quarrel morphed into an overall trade-cum-technology war, with escalating tariffs and political rhetoric at high decibel levels. Ever since, speculation has been rife that we are heading towards a “new normal” in global economic relations — where investment and trade links between the US and China are gradually “decoupled”. Other regions of the world have been drawn in, willingly or unwillingly, and the onset of Covid-19 has aggravated the already heated