How a madman turned China from univestable to safe haven

Thursday 17 September 2026

There was a time, very recently, when the Trump campaign to contain China was working smoothly.

Chinese property was crashing; Beijing was panicking as trade wars disrupted its economic model, capital fled, and CNY fell.

China’s economic future as a rising hegemon looked grim.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.