The wrong question about the Paris trade talks isn’t whether they succeeded. It’s why anyone expected them to. China’s negotiating position was set long before anyone sat down at OECD headquarters — and it does not depend on what happens in any meeting room.
After 60 years advising CEOs and boards across the United States, Europe, and Asia — including decades working with Chinese companies and serving on Chinese boards — what came out of Paris only confirmed what I have told business leaders for months: China is not negotiating from uncertainty. It is negotiating from structural advantage.
