A hiss and puff of compressed air shapes the smooth leather, bringing to life an all-American cowboy boot in a factory on China’s eastern coast. Then comes another one as the assembly line continues, the sounds of sewing, stitching, cutting and soldering echoing off the high ceilings. “We used to sell around a million pairs of boots a year,” says the 45-year-old sales manager, Mr. Peng, who did not wish to reveal his first name. That is, until Donald Trump came along. A slew of tariffs in his first presidential term triggered a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Six years on, Chinese businesses are bracing themselves for a sequel now that he is back in the White House. “What direction should we take in the future?” Mr. Peng asks, uncertain of what Trump 2.0 means for him, his colleagues – and China.
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