Decoupling? No, deep coupling is what I saw at dazzling expo halls

As a technology journalist, I've grown accustomed to a certain narrative. Over the past few years, many have told me that the golden age of US-China economic cooperation is behind us. The reasons are familiar: decoupling, supply chain shifts and mounting restrictions on tech transfers. Chips, algorithms and sensitive hardware dominate the headlines — and the tensions.

But standing on the floor of the China International Consumer Products Expo in Hainan province last week, I realized that the narrative is wrong. Because there is another driver in the US-China relationship that rarely makes the front page: consumption.

Walking through the expo halls, I saw US companies not just exhibiting, but thriving. Estee Lauder, for instance, is not simply selling its products here. It is customizing everything — from formulas to packaging — for Chinese consumers. Tapestry, the parent company of Coach and Kate Spade, has built a full-fledged research and development center in Dongguan, Guangdong province. Not a mere "localization office", but a real research hub where products are designed for China and then exported to the world. That's not decoupling. That's deep coupling.