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.

The book can be purchased here https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9780062953056.

Attendance is free. RSVP is required to receive webinar login information. 

Speakers

Bob Davis is a senior editor at The Wall Street Journal who has been covering international economics since the early 1990’s. Davis covered President Clinton’s negotiations with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji in 1998 over China’s entry into the WTO. Davis also served as the WSJ’s China economic correspondent based in Beijing from 2011 to 2014. He has received a number of awards including a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting as part of a team reporting on the Asian and Russian financial crisis. He and his wife co-authored an e-book on their China experiences titled “Beijing from A-to-Z.

Lingling Wei is the senior China correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. Wei is a graduate of Shanghai’s Fudan University and the holder of a master’s degree in journalism from NYU. Joining the Wall Street Journal in 2008 Wei was promoted three years later to become a China correspondent with the paper. Her work with Bob Davis includes reporting on China’s debt issues, tighten state control over the economy and the U.S.-China trade war. She and Davis were part of a WSJ team that were awarded a New York Press Club award to their coverage of “Trump’s Trade Turmoil”