“We’ve been working on [reducing the reliance of our supply chains in China] over the last few years but we are now turbo-charging that initiative,” Keith Krach, undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment at the U.S. State Department told Reuters.

The pandemic has highlighted China’s key role in the supply chain for generic drugs here that account for the majority of prescriptions in the United States. It has also shown China’s dominance in goods like here the thermal cameras needed to test workers for fevers, and its importance in food supplies.