Opinion: Biden risks ceding Asia's digital oil to China

Representatives of signatory countries are pictured on screen during the signing ceremony for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade pact at the ASEAN summit held online in Hanoi on Nov 15. — Nhac Nguyen/AFP

Now that Asia has stitched together the world’s biggest trading bloc, United States financial and tech firms ought to be more than a little worried.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, will bind the 10 economies of South-East Asia with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, creating a prototype of what my colleague David Fickling describes as "a sort of Pax Sinica”, a Beijing-led global order.