This is John Batchel, a conversation with colleague Ann Stevenson Yang, the author of Wild Ride,

about how China did not quite understand the trade model that is followed by the World Trade Organization,

or if it did understand it, it deliberately took a shortcut that led to the present,

tumbling, crushed economy, emphasizing exports only, not emphasizing what they do best

and taking from other countries what they do best. Trade is Anne to explain. Much more of

this tonight. Anne Stevenson Yang, author of Wild Ride. They aren't because the international

trading system was premised on the idea of comparative

advantage. So the idea is you export things that you particularly make, like, I don't know,

like iron ore from Brazil or Australia, in order to create import demand and ultimately across different countries, the two things

balanced. So China really kind of messed up this formula by leaning into exports in order to enrich

a very, very small minority of Communist Party members. And it created massive debt in the U.S.

It didn't create it, but it certainly abetted it.

And also massive surpluses in China,

which kind of broke the international system.