Posts tagged as “China”

Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has animated the use of economic sanctions in an unprecedented way. Strenuous US-China relations, exacerbated by Nancy Pelosi’s provocative visit to Taiwan, raise the question of whether Washington would impose similar measures on Beijing in the face of a military invasion of Taiwan. Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen has warned that the Biden administration would do so, while the President himself has pledged defense in case of an unprecedented attack. Though the world’s largest economies are deeply intertwined, a closer look at the composition of these ties, as well as the strategic behavior of corporations, reveals an imbalance that favors the US. Should Beijing invade Taiwan, Washington would turn to sanctions, for it holds the economic sway. On a corporate level, sanctions would incur heavy losses on some companies, but a larger group stands to gain.