John Thornton's wish to have it all — in China, in the U.S. and in the U.S.-China relationship.
Illustration by Luis Grañena
In August 2021, John L. Thornton decided to take a six-week trip to China. At the time, the Delta surge of Covid-19 was raging around the world, but the former Wall Street titan couldn’t wait. After four years of turbulence under former President Donald Trump and a rough first year under President Joe Biden, Thornton was on a one-man mission to right the shaky ship of U.S.-China relations.
He quarantined for three weeks in Shanghai and then traveled to Beijing to meet with senior Comm
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