Ho-Fung Hung (Johns Hopkins University)

The Global Political Sociology of US-China Rivalry

The recent rivalry between the US and China is more about the shifting balance of economic forces in global capitalism than about ideological differences. Since the 1990s, Wall Street and US TNCs have integrated Chinese firms into their global financial circuits and supply chains. Their lobbying fostered a US-China policy that advanced economic engagement despite the deep, post-1989 ideological rift between the two countries. After about 2010, the China boom faltered. The Chinese state became ever more aggressive in squeezing US and other foreign capital within China’s sphere of influence to facilitate China’s capital export. This unleashed an inter-capitalist competition that underlined the intensifying US-China geopolitical rivalry.

Bio:

Ho-fung Hung is the Henry M. and Elizabeth P. Wiesenfeld Professor in Political Economy in the Department of Sociology and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Protest with Chinese Characteristics (Columbia, 2011), The China Boom (Columbia, 2015), City on the Edge: Hong Kong under Chinese Rule (Cambridge, 2022) and Clash of Empires: From “Chimerica” to the “New Cold War” (Cambridge, 2022).

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