Trump's Desperate Efforts to Cripple China Yield Zero Results

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - US President Donald Trump’s efforts to hinder his rival China in the manufacturing industry have not yielded sweet results. Instead, those efforts have produced nothing useful for the US.

Trump imposed tariffs to disadvantage Chinese manufacturing. Many companies were affected by this policy, triggering a contraction in China’s manufacturing index (PMI) for most of last year, with April 2025 recording the weakest point.

However, China did not sit idly by. The Xi Jinping administration implemented export controls on minerals and metals needed by US companies and difficult to obtain from other countries. On the other hand, Chinese manufacturers also adapted and found ways to keep moving, one of which was partnering with allies in third-party countries like Vietnam.

This caused the PMI to grow at the fastest rate in a year. Data cited by Reuters states that China’s trade surplus in the first two months of 2026 rose to US$213.6 billion from US$169.21 billion.

In 2025, the trade surplus, which was one-fifth of the record, reached US$1.2 trillion. Meanwhile, exports to the US fell 20% in the same year.

CEO of Agilian Technology, Fabian Gaussorgues, said this decline harmed producers reliant on the market. For example, Agilian, which mostly produces goods for Western brands, was impacted by a freeze in demand from the US.

Agilian’s clients once asked the company to ship products to warehouses in North America. This was an effort to anticipate the imposed tariffs.

Chief economist for Asia and global trade leader at the Economist Intelligence Unit, Nick Marro, explained that the duties imposed by China led to a restructuring of trade relations and supply chains.

He hopes that the US and China can continue communicating. That way, it can prevent trade tensions between the two countries.

“The best and what can be hoped for is a commitment from both sides to keep talking and perhaps a framework to prevent trade tensions like those that occurred last year,” Marro explained.