Michael Schuman, Columnist

China Doesn’t Want to Be Like the West

The Trump administration has underestimated the strength of resistance to a foreign order imposed by force.

May 19, 2019 at 12:09 AM UTC

Michael Schuman is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub and the author of "Superpower Interrupted: The Chinese History of the World" and "The Miracle: The Epic Story of Asia's Quest for Wealth."

Not then, not now.
Photographer: Time Life Pictures/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

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Theories abound for why the U.S.-China trade talks collapsed into stalemate, from misplaced overconfidence on the part of Beijing to President Donald Trump’s calculation that a tariff fight will boost his re-election chances. It helps to look beyond the political maneuvering and consider China’s history.

Throughout its 500-year relationship with the West, Beijing has sought to profit from its wealth without truly embracing its ideals and norms. That long-standing ambivalence is playing out in trade negotiations today, and probably doomed them before they even got underway.