Comment by resters
What does "geopolitical independence" mean? The ability to disregard international law? The ability to make war without worrying about the target being a trading partner?
What does "geopolitical independence" mean? The ability to disregard international law? The ability to make war without worrying about the target being a trading partner?
The pandemic was part of it, but a lot of the shortages were related to the trade war started by Trump and the failure of the US collaborate with public health authorities in China to stop the pandemic sooner.
From the perspective of Trump, those shortages were a good thing because they forced US firms to find other inputs and to resent China and feel suspicious of relationships they had depended on for years.
A friend of mine whose company ultimately failed due to the tariff-induced shortages watched his 90% US-based manufacturing business go under after it couldn't keep up with lower-cost Chinese-manufactured goods -- Chinese manufacturers got all the parts cheaper with no tariffs so their resulting BOM cost was a lot lower. All because he did most of it in the US and relied upon a small number of Chinese manufactured parts.
Lesson learned. Now he isn't even in business anymore so there are fewer voices to complain about the tariffs.
To me it means some degree of being able to continue with necessary production despite global disruptions due to political disagreement, war, disaster, etc.
For example, a major push to bring more semiconductor production to the US was motivated by supply shortages during the COVID pandemic.
A globally interconnected and inter-tangled trade economy has a lot of benefits, but it can also be disrupted. So some degree of resilience against this kind of disruption may be beneficial.