Relations between the United States and China continued to deteriorate as the two countries exchanged another round of sanctions. Boom Bust explores what those restrictions mean amid global economic uncertainty.
The founder and CEO of Optimas LLC consultancy, Octavio Marenzi, says that, “So far we’ve sort of seen a bit of a tit-for-tat kind of going on between the US and China.”
He explains that each country has respectively put certain individuals, politically connected people, under sanctions. Washington sanctioned the chief executive of Hong Kong. The Chinese have introduced sanctions on some US senators, like Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
“It’s not entirely clear what those Chinese sanctions actually consist of,” he said. “I don’t think Ted Cruz has too many bank accounts in China that are going to be closed down or taken over by the Chinese government.”
Marenzi pointed out that it’s a bit unclear what those sanctions really mean in practice, adding, “I think it’s largely symbolic at this stage”, and expressing the hope that the measures stay at this symbolic stage.
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