How California Became a Laboratory for U.S.-China Ties

How California Became a Laboratory for U.S.-China Ties
An Apple Store in front of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Shanghai, China, Dec. 21, 2017 (Photo by Wang Gang for Imaginechina via AP Images).

If California were an independent country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest economy—just behind Germany and just ahead of India. The Golden State has plenty of social problems, but there’s no denying the dynamism and creativity of its entrepreneurs, filmmakers, artists and scientists. Not long after California emerged as one of the main engines of the U.S. economy, China was taking its place as a huge driver of global growth. Increasingly, underneath the geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing, California and China are forming deep and interdependent connections.

To discuss the implications of this complicated relationship, WPR’s Elliot Waldman is joined by Matt Sheehan, author of “The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future.” He is also a fellow at MacroPolo, the think tank of the Paulson Institute.

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Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

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