We are seeing a remarkable turn of events in the weeks since Donald Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs. Most of the world is joining hands, together with China, and against the United States.

It’s not that these countries have suddenly developed a love of President Xi and his autocratic ways. It’s just that Trump’s massive tariff hikes and erratic behavior has countries across the globe preferring the superpower that doesn’t make absurd demands based on irrational complaints and ignores commitments that it made in the recent past.

In the last week there have been high-level trade talks between China and the European Union, China and Vietnam, China and Japan and South Korea, China and Brazil, and China and Canada. If Trump is going to make trade with the United States difficult, if not altogether impossible, these countries have no choice but to look to alternatives.

To a large extent this will mean more trade with each other. The EU nations will likely become more tightly integrated and increase trade with Canada. Canada will also look to increase trade with Latin America. And Japan and South Korea will develop closer ties.

But they will also look to increase ties with China. China has an economy that is already 30 percent larger than the U.S.’s economy and is growing considerably more rapidly. It also has a huge technological lead over the U.S. in many areas.

It produces high quality EVs that sell for $16,000, one third the price of an average new car in the United States. Its latest batteries can be charged in five minutes, and the cost of a charge is half the cost of a tank of gas. That has to look good to anyone who is not actively trying to accelerate the pace of global warming.

China produces 80 percent of the world’s solar panels. It also makes 60 percent of the world’s wind turbines. China is at the cutting edge in AI technology and its biotech industry is gaining rapidly on the U.S., if it has not already surpassed it. With the Trump administration’s chainsaw approach to research, it is virtually certain that China will be well ahead of the U.S. in this area by the end of the decade.

In short, China has a huge amount to offer the rest of the world. Given the option of a country with a stable leadership and the world’s leading economy in most areas, and an erratic autocrat whose primary motivation is vanity and vengeance, it should surprise no one that most of the world is gravitating towards China.

That is not a happy story for those of us living in the United States, but as the saying goes, it is what it is.