Containers are seen at the Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai, China, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues, October 19, 2020. But underlying trade and investment trends point to an unmistakable long-term drift in commercial ties with the West. Take foreign direct investment - the more forward-looking clue as to where commercial ties between countries are heading. WATCH GERMANYSome, meanwhile, point to the fact that U.S.-China trade - exports and imports of goods combined - hit a record $690 billion last year as evidence that the reality does not match the frosty political rhetoric. Last month's China strategy document unveiled by Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-way coalition left open exactly how far Berlin would ultimately go in reining in commercial ties.

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Persons: Aly, China's, Louise Loo, Stephen Roach, Yale Law School's Paul Tsai, Angela Merkel, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's, Mark Leonard, –, Joe Biden, Loo, Mark John, Christina Fincher Organizations: REUTERS, West, Oxford Economics, Yale Law, Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center, Reuters, European Council, Foreign Relations, – Mercedes, Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, BASF –, Oxford, Thomson Locations: Port, Shanghai, China, United States, Europe, GERMANY, Germany, Berlin, reining, Taiwan, U.S