When Titans Clash - Season 3 (2024)

Mexico is seeing a manufacturing boom amid US-China trade tensions. More American companies are outsourcing factory operations to Mexico - with, among other reasons, the need to de-risk supply chains. But more Chinese corporations are also investing billions in Mexico as a production base to get closer to regional consumers - a practice called nearshoring - and to get around US tariffs imposed on Chinese exports since the 2018 Trump era. Since 2023, China has overtaken the US as Latin America’s top trading partner.

As the West and Japan pursues a policy of de-risking from China, China’s economy loses billions and foreign investments into the mainland become negative for the first time since 1998. Are we witnessing the end of made-in-China? Or is this the beginning of profound shifts in China towards green tech, high tech, and a more service-oriented economy? With major multinationals pursing a “in China for China” strategy; whilst others double down on the diversification of supply chains, this documentary analyzes the complex business trends unfolding, and what it means for the world’s second largest economy.

USA, India, Europe, China - all of them are pursuing industrial policies in earnest, as de-risking with China deepens. What are the consequences of a new subsidy arms race, and how will it shape a new economic world order? In the United States, we examine how a slew of recent policies have lifted the domestic economy but complicates developments elsewhere. In China, we look at how government action has created some of the world’s largest battery and green tech companies. In India, we analyze if it could replace China as a manufacturing powerhouse. In Indonesia, we see how Chinese, South Korean, and Western companies work together to process nickel and build electric vehicles- demonstrating that in a world divided by geopolitics, there is still much need for collaboration.