The global technology and trade landscape has been rocked by a complex web of tariffs, diplomatic maneuvering, and high-stakes corporate decisions, as the world’s largest economies—China, the United States, and India—navigate a period of mounting tension over semiconductors and international commerce. In the past week, a series of pivotal events has underscored just how interwoven, and fraught, the ties between these nations have become.
On August 21, 2025, Beijing’s top envoy in New Delhi, Ambassador Xu Feihong, delivered a message of unusual solidarity at the SCO Summit 2025: Resetting India-China Ties, organized by the Chintan Research Foundation. Standing before a room of diplomats and analysts, Xu condemned the United States’ imposition of tariffs of up to 50 percent on Indian goods, calling for greater “teamwork” and “collaboration” between China and India in the face of what he described as a “bully” wielding tariffs as a weapon. “US imposed tariffs of up to 50 per cent on India. China firmly opposes it. Silence only emboldens the bully. China will firmly stand with India, uphold the multilateral trading system,” Xu declared, as reported by South China Morning Post.
Xu’s remarks reflect a rare public show of support between the world’s two most populous nations, who have often found themselves at odds over border disputes and regional influence. Yet the global trade environment, roiled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policies, appears to have created new incentives for Beijing and New Delhi to find common cause. Xu accused Washington of undermining the very free trade system it once championed, using tariffs as a “bargaining chip to demand exorbitant prices from various countries.”
The U.S. administration, however, remains unapologetic. On the same day, White House senior trade adviser Peter Navarro fired back, labeling India the “maharaja” of tariffs and criticizing New Delhi for “cosying up” to Chinese President Xi Jinping. The exchange highlights the shifting alliances and deepening suspicion that now define the global trading system.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-China trade relationship remains in a delicate holding pattern. According to South China Morning Post, the U.S. announced a 90-day extension of the China tariff truce on August 21, 2025, despite no breakthroughs in the third round of trade talks. The Stockholm joint communique referenced the Geneva joint statement from mid-May, where both sides had agreed on core principles for managing their rivalry. In Geneva, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer sat down with China’s Vice-Premier He Lifeng and Vice-Ministers Liao Min and Li Chenggang, aiming to de-escalate tensions that had rattled markets and dimmed global economic forecasts. As Jing Qian, Vice President at the Center for China Analysis, put it, “De-escalation was their shared interest.”
But while diplomats continued their cautious dance, the business world was forging ahead with its own high-stakes calculations. On August 22, 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang touched down in Taipei to visit chip foundry partner TSMC, just days before the company’s much-anticipated earnings release. Huang’s visit comes at a critical juncture: Nvidia, now the world’s most valuable company, is navigating rising friction between Washington and Beijing over access to its cutting-edge AI chips.
“My main purpose coming here is to visit TSMC,” Huang told reporters at Taipei’s Songshan airport, according to a live feed broadcast by local media. He explained that he would stay only a few hours, have dinner with TSMC leaders, and then depart. TSMC later confirmed that Huang would address staff on his “management philosophy.”
During the visit, Huang revealed that Nvidia had just completed the design—known in the industry as “tape out”—of six brand-new chips, including a next-generation GPU and a silicon photonics processor for its Rubin-architecture supercomputers. “This is the first architecture in our history where every single chip is new and revolutionary,” Huang said. “We’ve taped out all of the chips.”
Yet Nvidia’s technological triumphs are being shadowed by geopolitical headwinds. After the U.S. government reached a deal with Nvidia and AMD to receive 15 percent of revenue from sales of some advanced chips in China, the company placed orders for 300,000 units of its H20 chip with TSMC, responding to robust demand from Chinese firms. The H20 was developed specifically for China after 2023 export restrictions, but sales were abruptly halted in April 2025, only to be greenlit again in July.
However, the situation quickly became more complicated. Chinese authorities, citing concerns raised by the country’s cyberspace regulator and state media, warned domestic tech companies about the security risks of purchasing the H20 chip. Nvidia has consistently maintained that its chips pose no backdoor risks. Nevertheless, the company asked key suppliers—Foxconn, Amkor Technology, and Samsung Electronics—to halt production related to the H20 chip in August, pending further purchase orders from Chinese customers. “When we receive the orders, we will be able to purchase more,” Huang told reporters in Taipei. An Nvidia spokesperson added, “We constantly manage our supply chain to address market conditions,” emphasizing that “the H20 is not a military product or for government infrastructure.”
Asked about the future, Huang confirmed that Nvidia is in discussions with the U.S. government regarding a possible successor to the H20 chip, tentatively named the B30A, based on its latest Blackwell architecture. “It’s up to, of course, the U.S. government, and we are in dialogue with them, but it is too soon to know,” he said. The decision is out of Nvidia’s hands, highlighting the degree to which technology companies are now caught in the crossfire of global politics.
The stakes for all parties are enormous. For China and India, the U.S. tariffs threaten to undermine their export-driven growth models, while offering an unexpected opportunity for closer cooperation—at least for now. For the U.S., the challenge is to balance national security concerns with the economic imperatives of its own technology giants. And for companies like Nvidia, the path forward is anything but clear, as they must constantly adjust to shifting regulations, supply chain uncertainties, and the ever-present risk of being drawn into diplomatic disputes.
As the dust settles from this latest round of diplomatic sparring and corporate strategy, one thing is clear: the global order that once allowed technology and trade to flow with relative ease is being rewritten in real time. The coming months will test the resolve—and the ingenuity—of governments and business leaders alike, as they navigate a world where the lines between economics, security, and diplomacy have never been blurrier.
