A Complicated Relationship

During three years as a foreign correspondent in Beijing in the 1980s, I experienced some of China’s highs and lows: the promising first wave of economic liberalization, followed by the crushing tragedy of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Since then I’ve watched interactions between China and the rest of the world with particular interest. For the past few years the U.S.-China trade war has threatened to derail relations between Beijing and Washington. A partial decoupling in certain areas is already under way.