Bessent doesn't rule out delisting Chinese stocks

Zoom in: Bessent didn't raise the delisting prospect, but also didn't flinch when asked about it by Maria Bartiromo.

• "I think everything's on the table," Bessent said, before talking about export controls on both goods and capital to China. He then added: "That will be President Trump's decision. At the end of the day, President Trump and Chairman Xi have a very good personal relationship and I'm confident this will be resolved at the highest levels."

By the numbers: As of March 7, there were 286 Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges with a $1.1 trillion market cap. That's a slight year-over-year increase in the number of companies, and obviously the market cap has dropped over the past month.

• It's hard to see another issuer increase given Bessent's comments, even if they aren't ever acted upon. And that could become a boon for foreign exchanges like London, which already nabbed Shein's prospective IPO due to U.S. regulatory issues.
• Also worth noting that Shein, the Chinese apparel maker once valued by VCs at $66 billion, is suddenly under major pressure due to Trump removing the "de minimis" exemption, so its IPO is now up in the air.

And then... Bessent follows up his Fox Business hit by lobbing new rhetorical grenades at China during a conversation with the American Bankers Association, adding that any U.S. allies aligning with China on trade would be "cutting your own throat."

• "The biggest offender in the global trading system is China. ... For all of you who can remember that Disney movie with the brooms carrying buckets of water, that's the Chinese business model. It never stops, they just keep producing and producing and dumping and dumping."
• He also said China was the only country that had escalated in response to Trump's tariffs, and just moments later came news that the EU approved its first set of retaliatory tariffs.

The bottom line: The decoupling is accelerating.