{
  "title": "Trading Partners",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/03/book-review-trading-partners-obrien-ingleson-van-heuvelen",
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  "summary": "Focused on the pivotal period of the 1970s, Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson’s Made in China reminds us of the roots of the complexities still present in today’s China-United States relationship and in global trade overall.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Overview",
      "content": "- Book reviewed: Made in China: When US-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade\n- Author of book: Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson\n- Reviewer: ELIZABETH VAN HEUVELEN, senior economist, IMF’s Strategy, Policy, and Review Department\n- Publication: F&D Magazine, March 2024\n- Book details: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2024, 352 pp., $37.95\n- Focus period: the 1970s"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Core argument and analytical framing",
      "content": "- Ingleson argues the transformation of China’s market and the US–China relationship was enabled by three interlinking factors:\n  - cultural\n  - diplomatic\n  - economic\n- The book seeks to explain:\n  - why China converged with US capitalism\n  - why American capitalists incorporated China into their vision of the future"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Key historical episodes and anecdotes",
      "content": "- Early Canton Trade Fairs: used as a lens to view China’s internal debates over foreign trade and how US businesspeople perceived China.\n- \"Fashion diplomacy\": role of US importers such as Veronica Yhap, founder of Dragon Lady Traders, in promoting commercial and diplomatic thaw.\n- 1973 purchase of Kellogg fertilizer plants:\n  - Policy choice illustrated by Lin Hujia (then vice director of China’s state planning commission): “Should we eat 2 million metric tons of imported wheat or buy 10 chemical fertilizer plants…I believe we all agree to buy the 10 fertilizer plants.”\n- Early US labor reactions:\n  - Passage of the 1974 Trade Act\n  - Quota petition by the Worker Glove Manufacturers Association"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Diplomatic and economic dynamics highlighted",
      "content": "- Contrasting incentives for trade during normalization:\n  - Henry Kissinger and President Richard M. Nixon viewed trade as a mechanism to facilitate diplomacy.\n  - Chairman Mao Zedong viewed trade as secondary to resolving diplomatic issues.\n- Explanation offered for fits-and-starts pattern in early US–China trade: divergent immediate incentives that took time to align."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Contemporary relevance and implications",
      "content": "- Themes that resonate today:\n  - Maoist concept of self-reliance—zili gengsheng—traced through the period and noted as resurfacing in recent Chinese policy documents.\n  - Ongoing tensions between political hard-liners and pragmatists over China’s role in trade and geopolitics.\n- Interpretive conclusion:\n  - Convergence occurred when both countries needed each other to meet domestic and strategic objectives.\n  - The historical account suggests some contemporary challenges may be continuations of past dynamics rather than wholly novel phenomena.\n- Suggested avenue for further study:\n  - How the three interlocking forces—cultural, diplomatic, and economic—have continued to evolve in more recent years."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Review tone and contribution",
      "content": "- Meticulously researched and rich in anecdotes.\n- Provides fresh perspectives on early US–China commercial and diplomatic interactions.\n- Offers a cautious note of possible optimism: historical convergence may offer lessons for future accommodation if interests align.\n\nF&D Magazine — \"Trading Partners\" (ELIZABETH VAN HEUVELEN), March 2024.\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- Book Reviews: Trading Partners\n  - Book Reviews: Trading Partners (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Book Reviews: Trading Partners (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/03/book-review-trading-partners-obrien-ingleson-van-heuvelen"
    }
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    "Authors: ELIZABETH VAN HEUVELEN",
    "Published: February 16, 2024",
    "Book reviewed: Made in China: When US-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade",
    "Author of book: Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson",
    "Reviewer: ELIZABETH VAN HEUVELEN, senior economist, IMF’s Strategy, Policy, and Review Department",
    "Publication: F&D Magazine, March 2024",
    "Book details: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2024, 352 pp., $37.95",
    "Focus period: the 1970s",
    "Ingleson argues the transformation of China’s market and the US–China relationship was enabled by three interlinking factors:",
    "The book seeks to explain:",
    "Early Canton Trade Fairs: used as a lens to view China’s internal debates over foreign trade and how US businesspeople perceived China.",
    "\"Fashion diplomacy\": role of US importers such as Veronica Yhap, founder of Dragon Lady Traders, in promoting commercial and diplomatic thaw.",
    "1973 purchase of Kellogg fertilizer plants:",
    "Early US labor reactions:",
    "Contrasting incentives for trade during normalization:",
    "Explanation offered for fits-and-starts pattern in early US–China trade: divergent immediate incentives that took time to align.",
    "Themes that resonate today:",
    "Interpretive conclusion:",
    "Suggested avenue for further study:",
    "Meticulously researched and rich in anecdotes.",
    "Provides fresh perspectives on early US–China commercial and diplomatic interactions.",
    "Offers a cautious note of possible optimism: historical convergence may offer lessons for future accommodation if interests align.",
    "**Book Reviews: Trading Partners**"
  ],
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