In the rightwing fantasy world described in Tom Clancy’s military action novels, US President Jack Ryan establishes diplomatic relations with Taiwan despite vehement objections from Communist China.

Mr Clancy, who died in 2013, never explored the ramifications for US multinationals of President Ryan’s action. But thanks to Donald Trump, American executives may soon get to see how such a decision would affect them in the real world. The US president-elect is publicly mulling over and tweeting about discarding the “One China” policy that has underpinned Sino-US relations for more 40 years.

And that is just one of the troubles facing US multinationals. They are also grappling with Chinese regulators’ recent imposition of capital controls, including tighter vetting of dividend remittances.