Made in China: When U.S.-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade

It is tempting to take for granted a state of affairs wherein China exports manufactured goods to the world, and the United States buys much of what China sells. Ingleson, a historian, argues that doing so would be a mistake. It needed an unusual alignment of interests between the two countries’ respective political systems for this commercial relationship to emerge in the 1980s. Chinese policymakers, U.S. diplomats, and, notably, executive officers of major U.S. banks and corporations helped bring this dynamic into being. Through their efforts, China was transformed from a market of 400 million customers into a land of 800 million low-cost workers. This transformation required Chinese leaders to open their economy and compelled U.S. corporate leaders to commit to multinational production. It was facilitated by the weakening of organized labor in the United States, as blue-collar workers could not prevent the offshoring of their jobs. It remains unclear whether this interdependence, developed over 40 years, will survive resurgent nationalism, a revival of labor activism, and geopolitical tensions between the two countries.