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Viewsroom

Made in China’s success story is tentative at best

Viewsroom

Reuters

News

4.458 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The world’s second-largest economy posted a record $1 trln trade surplus for the first 11 months of 2025. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists discuss how Beijing’s plan to make high-end tech goods has paid off, and why a US trade war could spoil the party. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Something unexpected has arrived in Happy Meal. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Hello Kitty and friends are teaming up for the ultimate collab.

0:08.3

Joining your little ones on a fun-fueled adventure. Some fun, some food, it's all inside this Happy Meal.

0:16.2

Until the 2nd of February from 11am includes one pre-selected book or toy whilst dots last.

0:20.4

The views expressed on this podcast are those of the participants, not of

0:25.1

Rogers News. The US tariff war with China is not having its desired effect. Earlier this month,

0:34.1

Beijing posted a record $1 trillion trade surplus. Unfortunately, for U.S. President Donald

0:40.7

Trump, demand is being driven by countries outside of the U.S. who are more than happy to buy

0:45.7

cheap consumer and tech products from the world's second largest economy. This boom in demand

0:51.7

for Chinese products is probably the most concrete sign that China's

0:55.6

President Xi Jinping's made-in-China-2020 plan has worked.

1:00.5

But where does Beijing go from here?

1:02.9

What will the next manufacturing phase look like?

1:05.7

And how will the value of the Juan evolve?

1:08.7

All this and more is in this week's viewsroom. It's Amy. And it's

1:14.8

Yuna. And this is the viewsroom, your weekly podcast that delves into the biggest stories in business,

1:20.5

finance and economics with a team of columnists spread out across the globe. Now look, no one

1:26.7

expected China's exports to be so resilient. It's the

1:29.9

big surprise of 2025. But Amy, I think we're seeing three main things play out here. At first,

1:35.9

we've had this like really persistent weakness in the Chinese economy. And so manufacturers are

1:40.2

suffering. They're sending all their overcapacity around the world. And that's happening

1:45.4

regardless of US tariffs. And secondly, there's this clearly a pickup in the round-tripping

1:50.6

of goods to the US via Southeast Asia. And that's effectively Chinese manufacturers dodging tariffs.

...

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