US and China trade stable now.

From agricultural goods—for which China has been the United States’ largest market—to an array of raw materials and components for manufacturing, the economic relationship remains profound and is growing deeper in many sectors. In May, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that farm exports to China alone were forecast to come in at a record $36 billion this fiscal year, more than double the $17 billion of the 2020 fiscal year.

On paper, the U.S. trade deficit with China has dropped significantly—plunging by $8.5 billion to $34.9 billion in April, according to U.S. Commerce Department data released this month. But it’s a bit of a chimera. Trade experts and economists say that reflects in part China’s decision to reroute its U.S. exports through other nations, especially such East Asian economies as Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan, where Chinese-owned companies are dominant. And overall ​​the U.S. trade deficit has soared massively over the past two years—particularly with those countries toward which Beijing has diverted its operations, as well as others closer to home, such as Mexico, that have received a boom in Chinese business investment in the last few years. Reuters reported this month that China had overtaken the United States in trade with Latin America.

U.S. businesses, meanwhile, continue to invest heavily in China, and they are growing more outspoken about their intention to continue doing so. In a speech in Washington this month, Evan Greenberg, a former chair of the U.S.-China Business Council, called decoupling an “economic impossibility” and urged U.S. companies to redouble their efforts to enter the Chinese market. Decoupling, Greenberg said, will only “feed China’s worst instincts” and at the same time undercut U.S. global competitiveness.