When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, most experts in the West expected that China would become more democratic and a responsible global player as its economy developed. But the experts made the wrong bet. Twenty years later, China today is becoming more authoritarian and mercantilist. Why were they all wrong? What is the real intent of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)? How can the challenges and risks posed by the CCP’s growing power be confronted?
In this interview, Clyde Prestowitz argues that the Chinese Communist Party has effectively been acting as if it were at war with the United States, and the United States must respond accordingly. Mr. Prestowitz was a leader of the first U.S. trade mission to China in 1982 and has served as an adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.