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Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai on April 24. 

Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai on April 24. 

Photographer: Yin Liqin/China News Service/Getty Images

Business
The Big Take

Global Supply Chain Crisis Flares Up Again Where It All Began

Ports are already snarled, with the $22 trillion trade in global goods facing months of severe disruption.

China’s stringent rules to curb Covid-19 are about to unleash another wave of summer chaos on supply chains between Asia, the U.S. and Europe.

Beijing’s zero-tolerance approach amid an escalating virus outbreak brings the pandemic full circle, more than two years after its emergence in Wuhan upended the global economy. Shipping congestion at Chinese ports, combined with Russia’s war in Ukraine, risks a one-two punch that threatens to derail the recovery, already buffeted by inflation pressures and headwinds to growth.