China’s next shock is coming – and Britain and Europe are sitting ducks

Professor Michael Pettis of Beijing University says investment has spiked back up to 42-44pc of GDP, far surpassing any level ever seen in any major country since the industrial revolution. Other Asian tigers peaked in the low-30s before dropping back as they became richer.

Xi Jinping has reverted to the worst pathologies of the old model, partly as a quick-fix to counter the property crash and secular debt-deflation, and partly because the Communist Party needs its instruments of political control.

What makes it intolerable this time is Xi’s bare-knuckled push for cleantech hegemony and his open attempt to overthrow the universalist liberal order – a broader grouping than the West since it includes Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.

Washington is not going to tolerate this second and even larger China Shock. “They’re driving manufacturing companies out of business in Europe. We won’t let that happen here in America,” said Joe Biden.

“We’re not going to let China flood our market. The future of EVs will be made in America by union workers. Period,” he said.

The tariffs announced last week are breathtaking: 100pc on EVs; 50pc on solar panels, semiconductors, and syringes; 25pc on steel, aluminium, lithium batteries, magnets, and so forth. There is much election theatre in this blitz, but it is not protectionist as such.