The Great Decoupling

The world's two largest economies are divorcing - and everyone must choose sides.

For four decades, America and China built the modern economy together: American capital and Chinese labour; American design and Chinese manufacturing; American consumers and Chinese savers. That marriage is over. Tariffs, technology bans, investment restrictions, and military tensions are driving the deepest economic bifurcation since the Cold War.

In The Great Decoupling, Nicholas Holt provides the definitive account of how the US-China divorce is reshaping global trade, technology, finance, and security. From the semiconductor supply chain's forced restructuring to the scramble for rare-earth minerals, from the dollar's weaponisation to the yuan's counter-offensive, Holt traces the new architecture of a world that can no longer pretend to be one market.

Inside, you will discover:

• The technology curtain: how the battle over chips, AI, and quantum computing is dividing the digital world
• Friendshoring and nearshoring: the real costs of moving supply chains out of China
• Financial decoupling: why capital markets are splitting along geopolitical lines
• The allies' dilemma: how Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia are navigating the pressure to choose sides
• Military competition over Taiwan: the scenario that could turn economic divorce into global catastrophe

Who must read this book?

• Business leaders restructuring supply chains and assessing geopolitical risk
• Investors reallocating portfolios for a bipolar economic world
• Policymakers crafting industrial strategy in an age of strategic competition

The Great Decoupling is not a future risk. It is the present reality. This book shows you what it means - and how to survive it.