China, US must ‘work together’: Jayant Bhandari
- 7 March 2026
Seasoned resources investor Jayant Bhandari can see a path – even in the current environment – where the world can get back on more of an even keel. That doesn’t mean reversing the stalled drivers of globalisation that have been replaced by trade and supply chain separation forces.
But it does mean getting people back together, and therefore generally better informed, to be able to properly explore ways to tackle universal energy, infrastructure and ultimately prosperity challenges.
Anarcho Capital’s Bhandari, who will speak on that fragmenting world at the upcoming Resourcing Tomorrow conference in Hong Kong, says while continuing global volatility might be the new normal – a theme repeated at many international mining events early in 2026 – a favourable, decisive outcome for the US in Iran can help restore some equilibrium.
Beyond that, US president Donald Trump’s proposed face-to-face with China’s leader Xi Jinping in April is obviously massive. “If Trump visits China in April I would expect the US dollar to improve,” says Bhandari. “[It] currently lacks a proper valuation because of tariffs.
“My view is that China and US relations should improve. Both of them need this. Both will be prime movers of the world economy.”
Bhandari said recently China’s reported record US$1.19 trillion 2025 trade surplus showed the country “continues to do well”.
“I’m a true believer in both the United States and China and I think in an ideal situation they should find a way to work together.
“They are both, as societies, interested in improving the well-being of their people, not like the third world tyrants and kleptocrats who only want to improve their personal wellbeing and steal all the money and run a fanatical system of tyranny.
“Both China and the United States are mostly focused on value.
“The Chinese create a huge amount of value. They are focused on doing the right things. Their electric vehicle industry, which is the most visual part of the Chinese economy, is outstanding. I sit in the Uber equivalent in China all the time, and I always ask the [driver] which brand it is, because they have literally 100 or more different companies producing different kind of cars, and they are all excellent.
“I think they both [China and US] want to improve the wellbeing of their societies and that’s the way it should be.
“That said, there are clearly a few [issues]. One is that the West, particularly the US bureaucrats sitting in Washington, likely find China as a competitor. China has been improving and there is nothing anyone can do to slow that down. At the same time, a lot of Chinese growth and economic improvement has happened because of the West – because of the import of technology and import of capital from the West.
“Now probably Washington, or the US, thinks that China should be subservient to US interests. But that's not necessarily going to happen once someone has become so powerful and so strong.
“Certainly, too, China and Russia ... are less interested in what happens in terms of human rights in other societies and, as far as I can see, have had no problems getting into bed with [bad] regimes.”
Overall, though, Bhandari thinks people in the West have been too heavily indoctrinated in a negative way about China and general ignorance – both ways – needs to change. He spends a lot of time in China and believes it is “a wonderful place”.
“China is among the safest countries in the world today. It is a lovely country.
“China is an emerging superstar. It is among those rare third and second world countries that will have managed to become first world countries. Eventually it will very likely surpass Japan on a per capita basis.”
Asked how he felt about closer connections between mining companies and governments – in the form of funding and offtake deals – at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions, Bhandari said he was “mostly ambivalent about government participation in projects”.
“A lot of this money ends up in the wrong hands and is unproductive,” he said.
“Any improvement in permitting, something that I would be suspicious about outside the US, would be rapidly and often more than priced in the market. So there is hardly much benefit there I can enjoy going forward [as an investor].
“Of course, some good money has been made because of the US participation. I have seen some of our investments go up several times almost overnight.
“[Ultimately thought] I am only interested in making money [by] investing for value.
“I do not speculate in commodities and often wish that mining conferences were more about mining than commodities. Mixing the two does not work.
“I am looking for projects that make me money using the lower of the future and spot metal prices.
“Despite being ambivalent on commodities I do think gold is well supported, primarily because the chaos in the world requires many people, particularly those from the third world, to buy it. The Chinese too will be keen for they lack avenues to invest. They have lost interest in the property market.”
Jayant Bhandari will join Petra Commodities CEO Alberto Migliucci, Primary Commodity Fund’s Amanda van Dyke and MMC Partners’ Ian Hiscock at Resourcing Tomorrow Hong Kong 2026 to talk about, ‘The geopolitical playbook: investing in a fragmenting world’.
