Superpower Showdown is a remarkably insightful and nuanced look at the complicated relationship between the US and China. What I found most interesting was the window it provided into the ways in which each country's leaders have perceived the motives and goals of the other and how it affected diplomacy and trade relations. It also gives the reader a better understanding of the escalation in tensions between the two countries. I learned something on every page and strongly recommend it.

SUPERPOWER SHOWDOWN by Bob Davis and Lingling Wei explores "How the Battle Between Trump and Xi Threatens a New Cold War." Both Davis and Wei are award-winning journalists for The Wall Street Journal; they base their book "primarily on hundreds of interviews in Washington and Beijing over the past two years," although they acknowledge in a note to readers that many comments are not directly attributed to a particular individual due to the assurances of anonymity. Early in the book Davis and Wei describe the "serious miscalculations" by both sides as they negotiated in the late Spring of 2019. They note how "Donald Trump started the biggest trade war since the 1930s with only a superficial understanding of how China worked, and without a specific goal in mind or a plan to achieve success." Although a limited deal was reached earlier this year, they feel that "the Chinese leadership finds it increasingly difficult to cut a deal with Washington, whoever is president, without being seen as caving." To support their thesis, Davis and Wei trace developments from the 1980s through early 2020, complete with extensive notes and an index.

A fascinating read that is very well-written, SUPERPOWER SHOWDOWN received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Davis and Wei say, "think of this [China-US relationship] as a romance gone bad;" for a related opinion piece, see Thomas Friedman's "China and America Are Heading Toward Divorce" and also the latest Pew Research data on increasingly negative American attitudes towards China.

Links in live post:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/opinion/china-united-states-trump.html
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/04/21/u-s-views-of-china-increasingly-negative-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/