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 will trace 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.

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