The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future

by Matt Sheehan, P.J. Ochlan (Reading)

Tensions between the world's superpowers are mounting in Washington, D.C., and Beijing. But between these hubs of high-level politics, an entirely new reality is emerging. Yet the People's Republic of China and the state of California have built deep and interdependent socioeconomic exchanges that reverberate across the globe, and these interactions make California a microcosm of the most important international relationship of the twenty-first century. In The Transpacific Experiment, journalist Matt Sheehan chronicles the real people who are making these connections. Sheehan tells the story of a Southern Californian mayor who believes a Chinese electric bus factory will save his town from meth labs and skinheads. He follows a celebrated Chinese AI researcher who leaves Google to challenge his former employer from behind the Great Firewall. Sheehan joins a tour bus of wealthy Chinese families shopping for homes in the Bay Area, revealing disgruntled neighbors and raising important questions about California's own prejudices. Sheehan's on-the-ground reporting reveals movie sets in the Hollywood of China, Chinese immigrants who support Donald Trump, and more. Each of these stories lays bare the new reality of twenty-first-century superpowers: the closer they get to one another, the more personal their frictions become.

Genres: China, Nonfiction, Business, Economics, Politics

Audio CD

Published August 13, 2019

Reviews

[Dave Schoettinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since before Forrest Gump learned to play ping pong, the relationship between the US and China has been one of the more important and bewildering facets of the international scene. Matt Sheehan became fascinated with China while a student at Stanford, learned Mandarin, worked in China for a few years, and has spent most of his adult life describing and analyzing the mutual advantages involved in dealings between China and California. Whether it is lots of Chinese students paying out-of-state tuition to shore up the finances of California universities or Chinese investors providing funding for East Bay housing projects in exchange for green cards, many of these dealings involve Chinese money flowing into California.

Topics like tariffs, the South China Sea, and other government-to-government matters get only marginal attention from Sheehan. He is more interested in person-to-person dealings and much of this book is a synopsis of conversation the author has had with such persons on both sides of the Pacific. The book was written in 2019 and so is without the complications of COVID, however the author is clearly concerned that hostility toward China by the Trump Administration is dampening the desire of both countries for further engagement in what Sheehan call the Transpacific Experiment. From the vantage point of 2024, the reader can be forgiven for feeling nostalgic for Forrest and simpler times.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very timely read in an era of looming trade wars and the decline of American economic supremacy. As a California resident, it behooves us to have an understanding of the socioeconomic forces at play. For possibly the first time ever, we are seeing the bootstrap narrative of the American dream turn its head as the new wave of immigrants are not poor or from a certain part of the world. As Sheehan argues, this Transpacific Experiment has far reaching consequences: from the universities we attend, the houses we (wish to) buy, the movies we watch, and the politicians we elect.
Moreover, Sheehan knows his stuff. With years of reporting and living in China, he chronicles a nuanced tale (with on-the-ground reporting!!) of two powerful cultures ebbing and flowing across the Pacific.

Pair this reading with Kai Fu Lee's AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. I believe both will be very important reads for any American today.

[Rolin · Rating 5 out of 5]

an excellent read. and pretty damn prescient for where the inertia of tech/social/political change is going.

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future by Matt Sheehan is a collection of essays ostensibly touching on the Sino-American relationship, but usually is conducted through a series of people stories. If you're thinking this is going to be a popular book on great power politics, you will be disappointed. Sheehan's work is focused more on the people caught between, awkwardly placed between a hardening China and a national backlash in the United States. Geopolitics is there, but the focus is on "ordinary people." In that regard, it does relatively well, but it largely fits within the canon of frustrated liberal/progressive critiques of American politics, particularly when seen through the lens of AAPI political consciousness, curated by someone leveraging their experiences both in China and in California. I found myself liking a great deal of the book, but there were times where I wished Sheehan had tried to write a more wonkish book. Sheehan has a way of describing economic policies in an engaging way, so that while I was not learning much, I was still listening intently.

[Cal Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author weaves an informative narrative about US-China relations into his own personal story. I particularly enjoyed the breakdown of very different Chinese immigration waves to the US, as well as the changing Chinese student experience in the US. A promising start for a talented writer and worth picking up for anyone with even a mild interest in modern China.

[Sean Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredible and I recommend it to everyone. Also spent some time listening to Matt Sheehan on YouTube.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know Matt, so I knew this book would be good, but whew, it was great!

[Olivia Leavengood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and easy to read understand, I think about these cultural dynamics almost daily