The European Union will see sanctions through regardless of cost. Meanwhile, it is feeling the backlash. As pressure continues to advance, the trouble will ferment, eroding their resolve. Will the EU be able to tough it out? That’s anything but certain.

In its pursuit for unipolar primacy, the Biden administration is risking the economic stability of China, the West, emerging Asia, and the futures of the Global South.

Washington wants to build a “small chip world” for itself that is decoupled from global supply chains. This is pure fantasy. The act can neither help the U.S. achieve a secure supply chain nor rejuvenate its domestic chip manufacturing sector. And it won’t slow China down either.

Last October’s G20 Leaders’ Summit – held in Rome, and hosted by then-Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi – produced a declaration brimming with promises to “address today’s most pressing global challenges” and “converge upon common efforts to recover better from the COVID-19 crisis and enable sustainable and inclusive growth” across the world. What a difference a year makes.

Some central banks have followed the U.S. Federal Reserve, but Japan, for example, is marching to the beat of its own drum. The Biden administration and the Fed, meanwhile, claim the surge in U.S. inflation is “temporary.” This reflects a severe misjudgment.

China’s economy has weather the pandemic as well as any other nation’s has in the last few years, but the future seems uncertain as the world order is reshuffled as borders and regulations return to pre-outbreak norms.

The international financial infrastructure has long been dominated by Western institutions. China’s advances in digital currency could help spread its influence on global commerce enough to challenge the hegemony of the U.S. dollar.

China’s fundamentals are resilient and robust, and the trend points to normalcy and growth. Trade is up, inflation has been controlled, and while the U.S. Fed’s rate hike pushed many currencies down, the Chinese yuan has remained stable.

China reported its worst economic performance since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The systemic challenge for the U.S. is not China but the worst inflation in 40 years. In fact, fragmentation does not seem to be happening in the real world. Even an Asia-Pacific version of NATO will not likely divide the region, as China will continue to be a major trade partner.