Growing extreme partisanship in the U.S. has deadlocked the debt ceiling raising at a time when the U.S. Dollar is facing its greatest challenge as a global reserve currency. China has sought to increase cross-border transactions in the Chinese yuan and has signed more deals to achieve this with several countries. However, the yuan lacks global adoption of its currency and in alternative systems outside of countries that do significant direct business with China.
China’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports fell sharply in 2022 because of the disruption caused by lockdowns to control the coronavirus epidemic and the massive exit wave of infections when they were lifted.