Does Sino-US trade friction hurt corporate resilience? Evidence from Chinese enterprises

As the world's largest foreign trading country, China has faced numerous trade investigations in recent years. We select panel data from China's manufacturing A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2021 to explore the impact of Sino-US trade friction on corporate resilience and its internal mechanisms. The results show that: (1) The intensification of Sino-US trade friction significantly reduces the resilience of Chinese microenterprises. This conclusion remains robust after a series of tests using PSM-DID and other methods. (2) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the resilience of export enterprises, high-tech enterprises, and enterprises in developed regions are more severely impacted by Sino-US trade friction. (3) Mechanism tests reveal that Sino-US trade friction damages enterprise resilience mainly through three channels: damaging the spirit of entrepreneurs, reducing internal operating profits, and exacerbating external financing constraints. The results provide theoretical and empirical support for understanding the survival effects of microeconomic entities under the impact of Sino-US trade friction.