#231 - China's Rise: Trade Wars, Myths, and U.S. Policies with Elizabeth O'Brien Ingleson

In the 1970s, long before “Made in China” became inescapable, a series of seemingly small diplomatic and trade decisions quietly rewrote the global economic order. What began as symbolic textile imports and geopolitical chess moves ended up hollowing out American manufacturing, lifting hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty, and creating the interdependent yet tense superpower rivalry we live with today.

Elizabeth O'Brien Ingleson is a historian specializing in the histories of capitalism, US-China relations, and US foreign relations. She is also an Associate Professor at the International History Department at the London School of Economics, co-organizer of the LSE-Tufts Seminar in Contemporary International History, and Author of Made in China: When US-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade.

Website - https://www.elizabethingleson.com/

Made in China - https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674251830

00:00:00 | Intro
00:04:36 | “Who Lost China?” – How McCarthyism and Cold War Paranoia Shaped a Century
00:12:36 | Nixon, Kissinger, and the Taiwan Problem
00:20:08 | Trade as a Diplomatic Weapon
00:25:40 | From 400 Million Customers to 800 Million Workers
00:34:03 | Labor Unions vs. The State Department
00:39:17 | The "Cotton Glove" Case: A Warning Ignored
00:47:20 | Textiles, Clothespins, and the Canaries in the Deindustrialization Coal Mine
00:52:58 | The Gang of Four & Internal Chinese Chaos
00:58:18 | Chaos Then, Chaos Now – Why the 1970s Feel Like a Mirror of 2025
01:01:15 | Mao’s Final Years and the Power Struggle That Decided China’s Path
01:08:03 | The Birth of "Made in China"
01:11:09 | Wall Street, Washington, and the End of Empire

10/21/2025