After a Chinese balloon crossed the US, ties between the nations recently reached a new low. Beijing disputes US allegations that it was used for espionage.
The two largest economies in the world have also been engaged in a trade war since 2018.
According to the most recent data, US imports from China grew to $536.8 billion last year as American consumers upped their purchases of Chinese-made products like toys and mobile phones. US exports to China climbed to $153.8 billion during the same time period.
Despite years of trade tension, the data show how dependent the US and China still are on one another, even though some of the increase in commerce between the two nations is due to the rising cost of living.
Asian Trade Center founder Deborah Elms told the BBC, "I think it's an important illustration of the difficulty of genuinely decoupling."
Even if governments, businesses, and consumers desired to operate independently, she continued, "it would be challenging to deliver goods in a decoupled world at a cost that businesses and customers are ready to pay."
