U.S., Japan and China - identities, economics and power

In this webinar Nicola Nymalm will present her new book “From Japan ‘Problem’ to China ‘Threat’”, in which she explores parallels in the discursive constructions of the US-Japan and US-China economic relationships. Although much has been made of the novelty of former President Trump’s trade war on China, discourses regarding limited access for foreign firms and regulatory favouritism for American companies have been around well before China’s economy started growing. In fact, similar rhetoric could be heard already in the 1980’s by President Reagan concerning Japan. Nymalm’s work illustrates that the ‘new era’ in US-Chinese relations that scholars and policymakers have been announcing since the beginning of the Trump presidency was long in the making – it rests on longstanding discourses on the USA’s main economic competitor.