STOCKHOLM – We have just witnessed the birth of a new buzzword. Suddenly, policymakers in the United States and across Europe want to “de-risk” the relationship with China.
The term owes its new popularity to the equally sudden turn away from “decoupling,” which made the rounds for a while, until it turned out that almost no one favors a definitive break between China and the West. It is neither desirable nor even feasible to sever all ties with the world’s second-largest economy, so everyone has settled on a much vaguer concept.