Good evening. With the July 4th holiday coming up, our cover story this week is a beautiful reflection on both the American and Chinese empires. Excerpted from Edward Wong’s new book, The Edge of Empire, it is a personal account of how Wong’s father’s experience in the PLA came to inform his own experience as a journalist first in Iraq and then in Beijing. Elsewhere, we have infographics on China’s pork market; an interview with Robert O’Brien, Trump’s third national security advisor, on America’s greatest foreign policy failure since the 1930s; a reported piece on Washington’s attempted crackdown on the de minimis exemption; and an op-ed on how a new government in Britain could deal with China. If you’re not already a paid subscriber to The Wire, please sign up here.
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A Son of Two Empires
In his new book, Edward Wong reflects on the nature of the American dream and the Chinese dream — and how he and his father have experienced both.
The Big Picture: China’s Soft Pork Underbelly
China has launched an anti-dumping investigation into European pork, but as this week’s infographics by Aaron Mc Nicholas show, its import market has already been narrowing.
A Q&A with Robert O’Brien
As President Trump’s third national security advisor, Robert O’Brien cut a very different figure from his two predecessors: hard-charging Gen. H.R. McMaster and uber-hawk and defense intellectual John Bolton. O’Brien was known for quiet competence and harkened back to more traditional Republican appointees. Along with his deputy, Matt Pottinger, O’Brien helped steer the administration into a more confrontational approach toward China, particularly as Covid spread from China to the U.S. Before taking the job, O’Brien, a prominent Los Angeles lawyer, was a Trump hostage negotiator and had struck up a friendship with actor Sean Penn who worked on hostage releases. In this week’s Q&A with Bob Davis — part of our ‘Rules of Engagement’ series — he talks about the possibility of bombing Taiwanese chip fabs, the fallout from January 6th and how a second Trump administration would approach China.
Robert O’Brien
Illustration by Kate Copeland
Why Small Packages Are A Big Deal
Stemming the tide of low-cost imports coming into the U.S. from China is proving tricky. Eliot Chen reports on Washington’s attempted crackdown on the de minimis exemption.
How A New Government in Britain Could Deal With China
Crafting a new policy towards relations with Beijing will not be easy after the imminent UK election, argues Kerry Brown in this week’s op-ed, but an incoming government will have hundreds of years of experience to draw on.
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