Trading with the Enemy: The Making of US Export Control Policy toward the People's Republic of China

Hugo Meijer

Oct 2018 · Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Liam Gerrard

About this audiobook

In light of the intertwining logics of military competition and economic interdependence at play in US-China relations, Trading with the Enemy examines how the United States has balanced its potentially conflicting national security and economic interests in its relationship with the People's Republic of China (PRC). To do so, Hugo Meijer investigates a strategically sensitive yet under-explored facet of US-China relations: the making of American export control policy on military-related technology transfers to China since 1979. Based on 199 interviews, declassified documents, and diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks, two major findings emerge from this book. First, the US is no longer able to apply a strategy of military/technology containment of China in the same way it did with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. This is because of the erosion of its capacity to restrict the transfer of military-related technology to the PRC. Secondly, a growing number of actors in Washington have reassessed the nexus between national security and economic interests at stake in the US-China relationship—by moving beyond the Cold War trade-off between the two—in order to maintain American military preeminence vis-à-vis its strategic rivals.

About the author

Hugo Meijer is Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. He is also the Academic Director of The European Initiative on Security Studies, a network of over sixty universities that share the goal of consolidating security studies in Europe. Liam Gerrard is an award-winning voice artist with over ten years of experience working in every field of the voice industry, as well as a highly acclaimed stage and screen actor. A 2017 Audie Award nominee, he has narrated over thirty audiobooks in a wide range of genres and styles.