The insurance moguls Hank and Evan Greenberg both want better engagement with China. The way they argue for it, however, has some telling differences.
Illustration by Luis Grañena
In April 1999, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji made a visit to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Bill Clinton. A few days earlier, the American president had delivered a speech voicing strong support for China’s admission into the World Trade Organization, a long held priority for Beijing. While acknowledging the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses and other problems, Clinton stressed the hope that economic development would liberalize China.
“Is this a country to be engaged or isolated? Is this a country beyond our power to influence or a country that is ours to gain and ours to lose?” the president asked. Zhu was there to be gained.
From left to right, Zhu Rongji, Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Yo-Yo Ma. April 8, 1999. Credit: Reuters/Alamy Stock Photo via Alamy
At a White House dinner, Clinton introduced the Chinese premier to some of the 224 dignitaries in attendance: novelist Amy Tan, the Rev. Billy Graham, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Janet
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Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative under Donald Trump, reflects on his decision to launch the trade war with China and begin the process of "strategic decoupling" — a process he says the U.S. must see through to the end.
