Your iPhone made in Shenzen – good. Your face mask also made in Shenzen – bad. How the pandemic will break globalisation.

“I think this will do more to speed up the decoupling process than Donald Trump would have ever been able to secure,” says Steve Tsang, the Director of the China Institute at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas). “When this is over, I would not be surprised if, not only the US, but governments in Europe will start to review their relationship and policies towards China.”

Over the past year, the trade war between Washington and Beijing has threatened to fracture the relationship between the two largest economies in the world. While there has been no food crisis in industrialised nations, there have been shortages – both of vital commodities such as medical equipment and of vital information – that hampered the global effort. This calls into question the role of the state in both the free market, liberal economies of the west and that of the one-party, command and control version in China.

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