China decoupling debate misses the most important point

For all of the uncertainties within the debate about decoupling China and Western economies — and there are way more questions than solutions — everybody agrees on one factor: It is going to be costly.

Whereas true, that easy reality doesn’t reply the one really central query: Is it price it?

That second query invokes the vital distinction between the worth of one thing and its worth. Decoupling will create losses — as economists outline them — however there may be rising conviction that one thing way more helpful, but far much less calculable, can be gained in consequence: safety.