How did China—the world’s largest communist nation—converge with global capitalism? And when did this occur? In this event, LSE historian Dr. Elizabeth Ingleson argues that this convergence began in the early 1970s, when the United States and China re-opened trade and the interests of US capitalists and the Chinese state gradually aligned: at the expense of US labor and aided by US diplomats.
Far from inevitable, she argues, this convergence hinged upon a fundamental reconfiguration of the very meaning of trade. For centuries, businesspeople had seen in China the promise of “400 million customers”: to them China trade meant expanding exports. In the 1970s, US and Chinese traders together reframed the China market itself: to a new promise of outsourced manufacturing and 800 million workers.
About the book
For centuries, the vastness of the Chinese market tempted foreign companies in search of customers. But in the 1970s, when the United States and China ended two decades of Cold War isolation, China’s trade relations veered in a very different direction. Ingleson shows how the interests of US business and the Chinese state aligned to reframe the China market: the old dream of plentiful customers gave way to a new vision of low-cost workers by the hundreds of millions. In the process, the world’s largest communist state became an indispensable component of global capitalism. Re-examining two of the most significant transformations of the 1970s—US-China rapprochement and deindustrialisation in the United States—Made in China takes bilateral trade back to its faltering, uncertain beginnings, identifying the tectonic shifts in diplomacy, labour, business, and politics in both countries that laid the foundations of today’s globalised economy.
Meet our speaker and chair
Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson is Assistant Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. She earned her doctorate at the University of Sydney and held fellowships at Yale University, the University of Virginia, and Southern Methodist University. She currently serves on the editorial board of the journal Cold War History.
Peter Trubowitz (@ptrubowitz) is Professor of International Relations, and Director of the Phelan US Centre at LSE and Associate Fellow at Chatham House.
More about this event
The Phelan United States Centre (@LSE_US) at LSE is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America.
Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEUSMadeinChina
From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly recommend that if you plan to attend this event you check back on this listing on the day of the event.