Workers rush to fill export orders in a sports and leisure goods company in Suqian, East China's Jiangsu Province on March 18, 2025. Photo: VCG

The US' imposing tariffs on many Asian countries has made China a more "appealing option" as companies are scared to make a hasty decision amid upheaval in global trade, the New York Times said in a report entitled "In a storm of tariffs, many companies see China as the safest harbor" on Wednesday.

"Staying in China and making China work is everyone's strategy right now," Travis Luther, founder of MOSO Pillow, a Denver-based maker of bedding made from bamboo fiber, was quoted as saying by the US newspaper.

Luther said he, like other business owner attendees, was not devoting time to searching for new partners or ways to move away from China. Instead, he was working with his Chinese business partner to find ways to save costs or develop new products. Cost advantages are only one part of what makes China the go-to destination for making goods. "It's because they have very sophisticated manufacturing and engineering processes."

Faced with constant flux and unpredictability, companies are choosing to stay with what they know: longstanding relationships with Chinese suppliers or manufacturing partners, read the New York Times report.

The New York Times also cited a top executive, who, at an international contract manufacturer, said it was impossible to make any long-term decisions about shifting outside China, based on what feels like "haphazard decision-making from the US."

Sarah Massie, who runs a consulting practice advising American companies on foreign trade, said that when tariffs are harsh everywhere, people tend to stick with the status quo. In the manufacturing world, China is the status quo, the New York Times reported.

Not only do enterprises see China as a safe harbor, but financial institutions also expressed their confidence in staying in the Chinese market.

"We see relative strength in China, the UK, and potentially India. While China faces a steep import tariff rate of over 50 percent, it has considerable capacity to deliver monetary and fiscal stimulus thanks to ongoing price deflation and ample fiscal space. What is more, its reliance on US exports is often overstated as it stands at just 3 percent of GDP," said analysts of Pictet Group, a leading European independent investment firm, in a report published on Tuesday.

The rest of the world is in a better position than the US, as countries in Europe and the emerging markets have more countercyclical measures on both monetary and fiscal fronts in their toolkit, the Pictet report said.

JP Morgan Asset Management stated that considering policy support, liquidity conditions, and investor sentiment, the Chinese stock market currently maintains solid fundamentals. The company said that it is optimistic about the long-term investment opportunities in Chinese assets, according to China Securities Journal.

Wang Ying, China chief equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, said in an analysis report that market volatility will remain elevated in the near term, while the A-share market demonstrates greater resilience and could be considered as a hedging or risk-diversification allocation option, the China Securities Journal reported.

Apart from confidence in the Chinese market, enterprises and analysts also criticized US' latest tariff measures.