Measuring trade without breaking down the goods is like counting calories without asking if it’s broccoli or beer. It matters. (1/8)
China exports mainly industrial goods—chips, machinery, components. The U.S. exports grain, aircraft, and intellectual property. Different leverage. (2/8)
Trading with China means relying on supply chains. Trading with the U.S. often means buying final goods or selling raw materials. Strategic dependency is one-sided. (3/8)
Volume stats ignore value added. Chinese goods can be low-margin but high-control. U.S. exports are often high-margin but not foundational. (4/8)
Services are missing from these numbers. The U.S. dominates finance, entertainment, and consulting. These shape power and influence, though they don’t show in container ports. (5/8)
Trade maps that crown China without this context are for headlines, not strategy. They count numbers and miss the real picture. (6/8)
This is a scoreboard for spectators, not a playbook for decision-makers. (7/8)
If you want to understand who really depends on whom, don’t ask how much they trade. Ask what breaks if the trade stops. (8/8)
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