Since the onset of the US-China trade war in 2018, "de-risking" has become the dominant buzzword in global supply chain discussions. The prevailing narrative suggests that shifting factories to Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia marks the West’s successful pivot away from Chinese dependence. Early in 2025, when the Trump administration’s "Liberation Day" tariffs specifically targeted Vietnam, the media interpreted it as a surgical strike against "re-routing" schemes.
However, the underlying data tells a fundamentally different story.
