Biotech is one area where the US can afford to let China flourish. Xi Jinping and Donald Trump have much to beef about when they meet in Washington this week, but the growth of Chinese biotech should be welcome news. Drugmakers from around the world are picking through China's biotech sector to find treatments and technologies they can bring to overseas markets. So far this year, companies have signed licensing deals worth $110bn, if all milestones are met, according to biopharma data gatherer Sleuth. That is roughly a $20bn increase on last year. These deals grant licensees various rights, such as to manufacture and sell a given drug or technology in specified regions. Leading the pack, Astra Zeneca has clinched $45bn worth of deals since 2021, in licensing as well as research and development, and has earmarked another $15bn to invest in the country through 2030.

There is an obvious commercial logic to this. Medicines may be hatched in Chinese labs but the illnesses they treat, including cancer and autoimmune diseases, are global. Advances into growth areas are warp speed. Look at immunology and inflammation, which went from virtually nowhere in 2023 to a fifth of deals two years later, according to Bio Century.

Trump tends to take a hawkish view of capital flowing away from the US. He signed the Biosecurity Act into law at the end of last year, aiming to curb dealmaking with China's biotech sector. Three similar pieces of legislation are wending their way through the system. Wu Xi App Tec was blacklisted for alleged military ties. But trying to squash Chinese biotech is both impractical and unwise.

One reason even trade-sceptical Americans should welcome the biotech trend is that they don't have easy options if the flow of drugs is impeded. In drugmaking, there can be many winners. If Chinese labs are coming up with innovative treatments and technologies, the rest of the world should cheer them on.