From Mao and Nixon to Xi and Trump: A history of China-US trade
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Asioita, joista on epävarma. Onko nyt hyvä hetki muuttaa uusiin tiloihin? Entäs sitten, kun markkina taas kääntyy? Tarvitaako me enemmän tilaa etätyölle, lähityölle, hybridille? No, sitten asioita, joista olen varma. Meidän olisi hyvä vuokrata tilat sellaiselta, joka on varmaa. Kun ajat ovat epävarmat, mitä jos vuokranantaja olisi varma? Niinpä. Kysy toimitilaa alan suositelluimalta vuokranantajalta. Toimitilat.varma.fi. Freestars. Parasta suorituskykyä työmaalla. Ja sen ulkopuolella Freestars Works everywhere! President Nixon's departure for China. South Lawn seventeenth February nineteen seventy two.
President Nixon prepares to leave Washington for China for what he would call this was the week that changed the world. As President Xi prepares to fly in the opposite direction for an expected meeting with President Trump in Washington this week. What's happened in the intervening period in the trade relationship between China and the United States?
They've really taken advantage of our country for a long period of time.
We're faced
with opportunities never seen before. We both understand that the capabilities and requirements of our two countries. Compliment each other.
The American people are a great people. The Chinese people are a great people.
We have great differences today. What brings us together is that we have common interests. Which transcend those differences.
That's today's Business Daily from the BBC World Service. I'm Will Bain. And really the modern trading relationship between the US and China starts around that moment in nineteen sixty nine, and that's where most of our focus will be. But it's not the complete story. So let's go back. Way back. Seventeen eighty four back. The Empress of China became the first ship to carry goods across the Pacific Ocean directly between the US and China. It was just a year before that trade between the two countries had been allowed under the Treaty of Paris. Tea, silk, and porcelain would be sent from China Going the other way were things like silver, sandalwood, and furs. The first really big trade dispute, where you would have heard of the rouse recently over the importation of the illegal drug fentanyl into the United States.
Well back then the Chinese were upset about the amount of opium being sent from foreign countries, primarily Britain, US had also got in on the act. It led to the first treaty on trade between the countries in eighteen forty four. And tariffs? Well they're not a new issue either. At the time of the American Civil War, the US government needed to raise money. How to do it? Yep.
Why does the episode begin with Nixon’s 1972 trip to China?
Sorry, President Trump, but the word tariffs was also a favorite of those politicians back then, with import taxes of fifty percent in some cases. After the Second World War came the founding of the People's Republic of China and trade well it almost ceased until nineteen sixty nine and President Nixon and that inaugural address.
During this administration our lines of communication will be open. We seek an open world. Open to ideas, open to the exchange of goods and people.
Well joining us is Chad P. Baume. He's co-author of the book How to Win a Trade War and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute think tank in Washington, DC. He also served in two different Democrat White House administrations.
At that stage, China was really so underdeveloped. that there was really very little technologically That China could do with the exception of really labor intensive Manufacturing. And during that era Um, and so we're talking about, you know, footwear and Clothing and textile, sewing, th things of that nature. In nineteen
seventy two, President Nixon arrived in China to meet with Chairman Mao and his premier, Zhao Enlai.
The peoples of our two countries have always been friendly to each other. But owing to reasons known to all, contacts between the two peoples were suspended for over twenty years. But
what we have said in that communique It's not nearly as important. as what we will do in the years ahead.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:55
2
Why does the episode begin with Nixon’s 1972 trip to China?
2:55–7:48
3
How did early Sino‑American trade begin with the Empress of China ship in 1784?
7:48–11:55
4
What were the first major trade disputes between the U.S. and China (opium, fentanyl, tariffs)?
11:55–18:57