Experts and business magnates from the world’s two largest economies called for greater connectivity on Friday amid growing political fragmentation, as deep-seated Sino-US misunderstandings create no winners.

Craig Allen, president of the US-China Business Council, said that the two countries are deeply entangled economically, and pulling that apart would be very difficult and costly. “But that doesn't mean that politics will lead us in that direction,” Allen told the Hong Kong US-China Forum, which was packed with international envoys, politicians, and pundits.

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Titled “Reflection and Forecast”, the two-day event is the first major international forum on bilateral relations following the US presidential election, in which Donald Trump clinched a commanding victory over Kamala Harris.

However, the possibility of increased protectionism driven by the president-elect is cited as a “great risk” by senior fellow of Yale Law School, Stephen Roach.

As part of Trump’s “America First” nationalist agenda, the billionaire Republican promised to raise tariffs on all imports coming into the United States from zero to between 10 to 20 percent and to boost those on Chinese products to 60 percent.

Problems associated with that policy change would trigger retaliatory responses from all of the US’ trading partners including China and elsewhere in Asia, Europe, South America, and the rest of the world, said Roach, who formerly chaired Morgan Stanley Asia. According to the International Monetary Fund’s calculations, that could lower global growth starting in 2025 by 0.5 to 0.75 percent.

The former president’s stunning comeback and the plans he laid out in campaigns were default ice-breakers for network conversations outside the forum’s speech house at the St. Regis Hotel.

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During his first term as US president, Trump raised tariffs on China from 3 percent in 2018 to 19 percent where they stand today. A lot of discussions in the morning suggested that he might not be serious enough to press ahead, but Roach gave a heads-up that China and the rest of the world have to take him more literally this time.

Evidence for this can be seen in the China hawk team he has assembled around him, including Florida senator Marco Rubio as his choice for secretary of state.

This is further underscored by a growing sense of bilateralism in US politics, an inclination to blame China for the US’ woes, and a willingness to “put politics over economics” in the ratcheting up of protectionism, Roach added.

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Addressing the same event, Laura Cha Shih May-lung, former chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, underlined the “need for connectivity” in a fragmented world.

She said the decoupling of the US and China is due to the two countries' different perspectives in areas like competition, economic development, and national security.

However, the headwinds between the two superpowers are expected to remain strong, according to US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, who said in his video speech that he expects the two nations’ relationship to continue to be “fiercely competitive”.