On September 15, Clyde Prestowitz, an economist, former U.S. trade negotiator and author of several best-selling books on globalization and Asia discussed his recent book, “The World Turned Upside Down: America, China, and the Struggle for Global Leadership” at a WSCRC webinar. Mr. Prestowitz outlined the economic growth history and explained that China has used a similar playbook, one that America abandoned at the end of World War II, to build its economy. He argues that China’s current state capitalist system is being used to overwhelm industries around the world, setting up China to dominate key technologies into the future. Mr. Prestowitz proposed concrete steps that the U.S. should take to maintain global technological leadership and increase manufacturing’s share of the U.S. economy.
WSCRC Hosts Book Talk with the Author of “Challenging China”
On April 28, 2021, the WSCRC hosted a book talk with Sam Kaplan, author of “Challenging China: Smart Strategies for Dealing with China in the Xi Jinping Era”. Sam is currently the director of the Center of Excellence for Global Trade and Supply Chain Management, which connects industry and education in Washington around workforce development issues. In the book, Sam asserts that a more authoritarian, more expansionist China is one of the four most important issues in the world. He analyzes China’s economic future, how it is changing the world order and what that means for the U.S and its allies.
Moderated by Ann Tyson, the Christian Science Monitor’s Beijing Bureau Chief, the lively discussion covered a wide range of critical topics, including China’s complex economic development, human rights issues, “decoupling” of technology between the two countries, and how the Biden administration should craft and pursue its China policy.
Missed the book talk? Watch the recording here.
Book Talk | The Myth of Chinese Capitalism: The Worker, the Factory, and the Future of the World
In his new book The Myth of Chinese Capitalism, Dexter Tiff Roberts describes how surging income inequality, an unfair social welfare system, and rising social tensions block China’s continued economic rise with implications for companies and countries around the world. He discusses how China is struggling to leave behind its “Factory to the World” growth model, and include its hundreds of millions of left-behind migrant workers into a more innovative, consumption-driven economy. He also talks about how these internal challenges will likely lead to an even more troubled relationship between China, the U.S., and the world.
Book talk recording can be viewed here.
When the Red Gates Opened: A talk with Author Dori Jones Yang
Dori Jones Yang is an award-winning author who spent eight years as a foreign correspondent for BusinessWeek covering China. In her new memoir, When the Red Gates Opened: A Memoir of China’s Reawakening (released September 22, 2020), Yang brings to life this transformative time in history and in her personal life.
Click here for the book talk details.
Event recording can be viewed here.
Book Talk | Superpower Showdown: How the Battle Between Trump and Xi Threatens a New Cold War
Donald Trump made what he called China’s “rape” of the U.S. economy a go-to riff during his campaign rallies, and as president put half of what China sells to the U.S. under tariffs during his second year in office. But the economic battle between the two largest economies in the world didn’t start with Trump and won’t end with him. How and why have U.S.-China relations sunk so low? And where are they headed? The authors of this new book, Bob Davis and Lingling Wei, Wall Street Journal reporters traced the route of the trade war from the early 1990s to the January 2020 signing of the phase one deal that signaled a temporary halt to economic hostilities.
Based in the two capitals—Davis in Washington and Wei in Beijing—these seasoned journalists have conducted hundreds of interviews with government officials and business leaders in both nations over the past nine years. Synthesizing a trove of confidential information, they probe how we have reached this tipping point in U.S.-China relations and what it means for the future. They examine how much of the blame for the worsening relations falls on U.S. presidents for failing to deal effectively with China and how much lies with Beijing and with the U.S. businesses that were China’s most effective lobbyists. “Think of this as a romance gone bad,” the authors write, as they detail decades of ups and downs that have led to the severe contentious relationship of the past three years.