Superpower Showdown: How the Battle Between Trump and Xi Threatens a New Cold War

by Bob Davis, Lingling Wei

Overview

This is the inside story of the US–China trade war, how relations between these superpowers  unraveled, darkening prospects for global peace and prosperity, as told by two Wall Street Journal reporters, one based in Washington, D.C., the other in Beijing, who have had more access to the decision makers in the White House and in China’s Zhongnanhai leadership compound than anyone else.

The trade battle between China and the U.S. didn’t start with Trump and won’t end with him, argue Bob Davis and Lingling Wei. The two countries have a long and fraught political and economic history which has become more contentious over the past three years—an escalation that has negatively impacted both countries' economies and the world at large—and holds the potential for even more uncertainty and disruption.

 How did this stand-off happen? How much are U.S. presidents and officials who haven't effectively confronted or negotiated with China to blame? What role have Chinese leaders, and U.S. business leaders who for decades acted as Beijing’s lobbyists in Washington, played in driving tensions between the two countries?

Superpower Showdown is the story of a romance gone bad. Uniquely positioned to tell the story, Davis and Wei have conducted hundreds of interviews with government and business officials in both nations over the seven years they have worked together writing for the Wall Street Journal. Analyzing U.S.–China relations, they explain how we have reached this tipping point, and look at where we could be headed. Vivid and provocative, Superpower Showdown will help readers understand the context of the trade war and prepare them for what may come next.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062953056
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/09/2020
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	408,544
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Bob Davis is a Pulitzer Prize-winning senior editor covering economic issues at the Wall Street Journal’s Washington D.C. bureau, and continues to write about China, where he was posted from 2011 to 2014. He has served as the Journal’s bureau chief in Brussels covering the European Union, and as the Latin America bureau chief. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Lingling Wei is an award-winning senior China correspondent, who was based in the Wall Street Journal’s Beijing bureau from 2011 until China expelled Journal reporters in the spring of 2020. Hailing from a farm province in southeastern China, she came of age as a journalist in New York and then returned to China in early 2011 to report on changes in her homeland. She is now based in New York and focuses on the intersection of Chinese politics and the economy.

Table of Contents

A Note to Readers ix

Introduction: Threat of War, December 2018 1

1 Miscalculations, April-May 2019 13

2 China's Rise, 1980s and 1990s 37

3 Taking On China, 1993 53

4 Boss Zhu Arrives, April 1999 65

5 Nailing Jell-O to the Wall, March 2000 87

6 China to the Rescue, 2008 99

7 American Backlash, 2009 115

8 The Leaders: Trump's China; Xi's America 135

9 Flood the Zone, December 2016 159

10 Things Fall Apart, Summer-Fall 2017 175

11 Liu He Gets a Lecture, March 2018 197

12 American Disarray, May 2018 215

13 A Buying Mission, June 2018 231

14 The Complaint: Chinese Arm-Twisting 249

15 Old Friends No More, September 2018 271

16 Couples Therapy, Fall 2018 289

17 Ping-Pong Diplomacy, January 2019 313

18 Bring Your Companies Home, August 2019 335

19 Negotiating a Truce, December 2019-January 2020 359

20 Looking Ahead: Cold War II 387

Epilogue 415

Acknowledgments 423

Notes 427

Index 445

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/18/2020

Wall Street Journal reporters Davis and Wei deliver an essential look at recent U.S.-Chinese relations, up through the January 2020 trade deal. Going back to the beginnings of China’s economic rise in the 1980s, they trace the deterioration in the country’s relationship with the U.S., which Beijing officials once likened to an “old married couple who needed each other, even though they might bicker.” Davis and Wei remind readers that Bill Clinton, “now seen as the great globalizer,” initially ran as an advocate for reviving U.S. manufacturing and as a harsh critic of China’s human-rights record, only to forge close economic ties to the country once in office. The potentially dry subject matter is made vivid by the authors’ references to relevant aspects of their family backgrounds—Wei's as the granddaughter of a veteran of Mao’s Long March, and Davis’s as the son of a factory owner who encountered intractable competition from Asian manufacturing—and by portraits of such key players as Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro. They end by listing options for the next U.S. president, whether Trump or Joe Biden, to take on China, including more multilateral use of tariffs abroad, and greater use of tariffs at home. This is required reading for anyone concerned about America’s economic future. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"This is essential reading for anyone concerned about America’s economic future." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"'We hope this book provides the material to understand what happened and why,' the authors conclude. Mission accomplished." — Kirkus Reviews

"A must-read for anyone interested in what happened between China and the United States, likely the world’s most important economic relationship." — Forbes

If you've ever wished you were a fly on the wall as top leaders in the U.S. and China were considering how to parry their counterparts' most recent moves, here's your big chance. . . . The book starts out with an incredible reveal, at least for those of us who have watched China for years . . . (No spoilers: Go read the book to find out!) — Axios

"Superpower Showdown, a gripping and granular account of the past, present and future of the United States-China trade war by two former Beijing correspondents of the Wall Street Journal, could just as well have been titled Marriage Story. . . . There are perhaps no two journalists better placed to tell this tale. . . . The strength of this book lies in the rich perspectives it offers from both Washington and Beijing, presenting a clear insight into the decision-making of both parties." — The Hindu

"Davis and Wei provide an essential overview of how the United States and China became so entwined, and the challenges ahead. . . . Superpower Showdown is especially insightful on how the contradictory natures of Trump and Xi have impeded understanding." — Boston Globe

"The twists and turns that produced the Trump administration’s China policy fill Superpower Showdown, a lively account by two gifted Wall Street Journal reporters." — Project Syndicate

"[A] well-reported and fascinating look into Sino-American economic relations . . . The most compelling parts of the book report on what the negotiators and policymakers on both sides were thinking before striking a deal in January 2020." — American Enterprise Institute

“My first advice to the Biden administration on trade and particularly our relationship with China is that they need to get and study copies of Superpower Showdown, a book by Davis and Wei that describes the environment with China—that we are now experiencing an era of confrontation.” — Josh Bolten, President and CEO of Business Roundtable, former White House chief of staff to President George W. Bush

From the Publisher

"Davis and Wei provide an essential overview of how the United States and China became so entwined, and the challenges ahead. . . . Superpower Showdown is especially insightful on how the contradictory natures of Trump and Xi have impeded understanding."

Boston Globe

"[A] well-reported and fascinating look into Sino-American economic relations . . . The most compelling parts of the book report on what the negotiators and policymakers on both sides were thinking before striking a deal in January 2020."

American Enterprise Institute

My first advice to the Biden administration on trade and particularly our relationship with China is that they need to get and study copies of Superpower Showdown, a book by Davis and Wei that describes the environment with China—that we are now experiencing an era of confrontation.

Josh Bolten

"A must-read for anyone interested in what happened between China and the United States, likely the world’s most important economic relationship."

Forbes

"Superpower Showdown, a gripping and granular account of the past, present and future of the United States-China trade war by two former Beijing correspondents of the Wall Street Journal, could just as well have been titled Marriage Story. . . . There are perhaps no two journalists better placed to tell this tale. . . . The strength of this book lies in the rich perspectives it offers from both Washington and Beijing, presenting a clear insight into the decision-making of both parties."

The Hindu

If you've ever wished you were a fly on the wall as top leaders in the U.S. and China were considering how to parry their counterparts' most recent moves, here's your big chance. . . . The book starts out with an incredible reveal, at least for those of us who have watched China for years . . . (No spoilers: Go read the book to find out!)

Axios

"The twists and turns that produced the Trump administration’s China policy fill Superpower Showdown, a lively account by two gifted Wall Street Journal reporters."

Project Syndicate

2020-03-29
A revealing look at U.S.–China trade relations during the Trump administration.

In December 2018, an informal poll of 75 corporate executives attending a Washington, D.C., conference showed that roughly 50% believed that, in light of recent trade history, the U.S. and China would be at war within 30 years. Davis, a Pulitzer-winning senior editor at the Wall Street Journal’s Washington bureau, and Wei, who works at the Journal’s Beijing bureau, depict this “romance gone bad” by focusing on the first three years of the Trump administration. According to the authors, a series of miscalculations and misunderstandings on both sides have brought the two nations to the current impasse. Chinese President Xi Jinping has failed to appreciate how his government’s subsidization of private companies and implausible denials of technological theft have alienated American officials. As for Donald Trump, the authors persuasively argue that his protectionist policies vis-à-vis China have achieved mixed results at best. Yet Trump “deserves credit for challenging the easy assumptions about China that had guided American policy since at least the Clinton administration,” particularly the idea that economic engagement would lead to political liberalization. General readers may be forgiven for skimming the more detailed passages, which depict the seemingly endless series of trade talks and controversies. Yet the authors skillfully enliven what could have been a dull narrative. Particularly diverting are the biographical sketches of the participants in the trade talks—including that of Peter Navarro, the profane hard-line economist in Trump’s administration—and a number of illuminating anecdotes and facts. China, for example, had the world’s largest economy “until roughly the U.S. Civil War,” and the Chinese refer to those who return home after working overseas as “hai gui,” or “sea turtles.”

“We hope this book provides the material to understand what happened and why,” the authors conclude. Mission accomplished.

Kirkus Reviews