First word AS the

nominal leaders of local political parties flail wildly to find a formula for victory in the 2022 elections, it will benefit everyone to remember the first principles and essential requirements for any group to make a difference in the election.

IT is an underlying belief in global trade that economic incentives are disconnected from political sentiments. The fact is that every decision is motivated by both material and political interest. As Samuel Bowles wrote in his book, The Moral Economy, economic motives and political sentiments complement each other. And disconnecting the two can result in a bizarre situation undermining self-interest. However, global trade is the only factor that brings nations together subsiding their geopolitical tensions.

It is important to recognize that the economic interests of a nation are cramped by explicit or implicit political motives. While engaging in trade relations with different countries, one needs to keep in mind the existing political tensions within that region. Despite the existing international reforms that seek to motivate fresh capital and investment to resurrect dead and ailing economies, still some issues sabotage global economic prospects hugely.

The question comes, why should businesses be concerned about geopolitical conflicts at all? To begin with, every government is concerned about its national security and sentiment that can influence both imports and exports of that nation. And despite the intensive globalization of businesses, they are required to follow the local rules and regulations of various countries in which they’re doing a trade.

Every political structure’s philosophy affects the business cosmos and the local economy. It looks ideal that businesses around the world aim to function within unbarred and democratic regions. However, despite the recent changes in democracy, still, more than one-third of the world reside under authoritarian governance. China de facto is looked like one of the explicit examples with its strong governance and limited individual rights. Chinese governance depicts its ideal version of merging an authoritarian system with a market-oriented economy and targeting fledging nations for its trade and expansion.

The call for a tiff with the superpower is a great example to start with. China is the major target of the US’ trade war activities, owing to its strong growth rates over the past two decades and the biggest trade imbalance with the US. Tariffs are the emergence of bilateral and multilateral disputes, harming global economic integration, and intensifying technological rivalry. The dispute between the US and China has already disrupted the IT industries in both nations, affecting large hardware manufacturers, computer chip designers, even social media platforms, etc. Despite a complex economic relationship, the superpower chooses to maintain peaceful trade relations with China as trade with China creates and supports nearly 1 million US jobs.

Focusing on the geopolitical literature of South Asia and Southeast Asian countries, the regional wars have always been cooking yet settling in peace for the sake of economic prosperity. For instance, the Galwan Valley conflict between India and China left both nations with internal regional tensions and the death of several army soldiers. Understanding the deep trade relations of India and China, where India relies on China for many things such as heavy machinery, electronic equipment, active medicinal components etc.,

China’s entire present and projected investment in India is at least $26 billion. India banned nearly 200 Chinese applications because of the standoff between India and China. However, India is the largest foreign market for Chinese mobile phone firms. And the fact that India is solely dependent on China for trade, both the nations with coordination agreed to deescalate the tensions.

Countries do not have permanent allies or enemies. A relationship between two countries is based on cardinal, forceful, economically enticed needs for essential markets. For example, China’s ban on Australian coal export has shown a shift in global trade. The coal exporters in Indonesia have benefited because of this ban where a $1.5-billion deal was signed between China and Indonesia. However, because of China’s ever-rising vision to control every region and expand its trajectory, Indonesia issued a diplomatic protest against China for intruding 100 kilometers into Indonesian waters. However, China is realizing that Indonesia is the world’s top exporter of thermal coal and key exporter to China and any serious conflict with Indonesia can lead to a big fall in Chinese steel plants.

Similarly, Taiwan and China have been at odds politically for more than 70 years. China claims ownership of Taiwan, but Taiwan rejects the mainland’s push for unity. The US has aligned itself in support of Taiwan in its fight against China. Significantly, Taiwan is the world’s leading producer of semiconductor chips. And, the majority of Taiwanese exports are complex electronics, particularly cutting-edge semiconductors that China cannot make.

Another significant scenario was when the countries begin to claim islands and different zones in the

South China Sea as early as the 1970s. However, satellite photography’s show China’s intensified efforts to recover territory in the South China Sea by physically expanding the size of islets or reefs or constructing new islands entirely in recent years. A Chinese Coast Guard vessel rammed and destroyed a Vietnamese fishing vessel in the Paracel Islands. The Philippines has also expressed concern over the deployment of Chinese maritime militia vessels near the disputed Whitsun Reef in the South China Sea. Not to forget, the adverse international criticism of China’s Belt and Road Initiative that affected the countries over the long term. Several countries have defaulted on related payments that would eventually allow China to leverage its economic and political power.

One can understand the gravity of geopolitical issues of a nation by studying its history, geography and culture camouflaged with colonial paradigms. However, the fact that remains unchanged is that economic interests always reign over political clashes. The global trade or the global market works in synchronization with ever-changing geopolitical alignments. Wherever the economic interests lie, every nation subsides political rivalry and try to play the game of trade cordially. And as a matter of fact, it is not relevant in what amounts your heart holds up the bitterness against your neighbors because when it comes to maintaining sanity and prosperity in the building, nobody minds sharing some bread.