The big pivots in global trade: Prashant Jha on the pandemic and globalisation

The pandemic drove nations to turn inward, and form new groupings. Attempts were made to diversify, rely less on China. Five years on, the results are mixed.

Made in China.

Five years ago, the innocuous tag attached to so many of our purchases, from toys and electronics to clothes and the idols one might worship, acquired an entirely new meaning. And no, this wasn’t about how the virus originated in China.

It was about how living through the pandemic, surviving it and overcoming it, required a high degree of Chinese commitment to abide by the rules of the game. It required China to be generous. At the