The Asia-Pacific Media Forum, which will open on Saturday in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, with the theme "Building a Path to Shared Prosperity for the Asia-Pacific Community: Media Consensus and Action", comes at a time when the Asia-Pacific's economic success is being tested not only by tariffs and trade barriers but also by the stories told about them.

The region needs media exchanges precisely because its economic cooperation has become too important to leave that narrative to those who see every commercial relationship through the lens of geopolitical rivalry.

The journalists and media executives attending the forum have been visiting Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Zhongshan before the forum starts. These trips provide a walk through the physical landscape of the Chinese economy: factories, ports, technology companies and supply chains that demonstrate something easily forgotten by some policymakers — prosperity is built through connections, not barricades.

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Since the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation mechanism was launched in 1989, trade in goods and services in the region has expanded from roughly $3.1 trillion to $30 trillion, hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty and regional supply chains have become so deeply intertwined that intermediate goods account for more than 60 percent of intraregional trade.

These achievements have been built on predictability and cooperation. Yet this basic economic logic has increasingly collided with Washington's unilateral and protectionist practices.

Since around 2018, the United States has promoted tariffs, technology restrictions, investment controls and supply-chain "de-risking" as instruments of transaction. The language sounds "reassuring". The consequences are less so. A region whose production networks have been assembled over decades is being encouraged to rip them apart in the name of "security".

There is a peculiar contradiction here. Economies are urged to diversify their supply chains, then threatened with tariffs when their exports become successful. Businesses are told to absorb the cost of geopolitical restructuring while US politicians congratulate themselves for having made trade "safer". This is not strategic sophistication. It is economic whiplash.

The costs are visible. The APEC region's economy expanded by 3.3 percent in 2025, and growth is expected to moderate to 3.2 percent in 2026 and 3.0 percent in 2027, weighed down by rising energy prices and geopolitical tensions. Merchandise export volume growth is projected to slow from 7.6 percent in 2025 to between 3.3 percent and 3.7 percent annually from 2026 to 2028, as temporary drivers fade and trade-restrictive measures multiply.

But economics is only half the story. The other half is language. A tariff is a policy instrument. Call it a "shield" and it becomes a symbol of protection. Call a trading partner a "threat" often enough and cooperation begins to look naive. Call supply-chain disruption "de-risking" and the disruption itself disappears behind a reassuring euphemism. This is where the media's responsibility becomes difficult to evade.

Journalists, editors, broadcasters, platforms and self-media creators do not simply record the world. They help decide which parts of it become politically visible. Through headlines, metaphors, repetition and algorithms, they shape what investors fear, what consumers expect and what some policymakers believe they can get away with.

In the age of social media and AI, this power has become more potent and more dangerous. A "trade war" is easier to circulate than a description of the benefits that flow along a semiconductor supply chain. A dramatic claim about economic betrayal can reach millions before a sober correction has even been considered. Therefore, the media has the responsibility to prevent unilateral and protectionist political rhetoric from masquerading as a description of reality.

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The media should ask who ultimately pays for tariffs, who benefits from technology restrictions, how much supply-chain relocation actually costs and whether "de-risking" reduces risk or simply moves it — at a higher price — onto businesses and consumers. That makes the Shenzhen forum more than a meeting of media professionals. It is an attempt to strengthen the region's awareness of the value of connectivity when its connectivity is under attack.

The challenge facing the Asia-Pacific is whether disagreement must always end in economic separation. The region's history offers a better answer. Its prosperity was built by exchange across differences. Its future should be too.