Manufacturing Diplomacy by Peter Hessler (China) in The New Yorker

In the March 15, 2021 issue of The New Yorker Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) has a long, long fascinating article about the ‘real’ world of commerce between China and the U.S. entitled ”The Rise of Made-in-China Diplomacy.”

While political leaders trade threats, the pandemic has made Americans even more reliant on China’s manufacturers.

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Peter Hessler

Peter Hessler has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2000. He is the magazine’s correspondent in China, a role he also held from 2000 until 2007. From 2011 to 2016, he was based in Cairo, where he covered the events of the Egyptian Arab Spring. His subjects have included archeology in both China and Egypt, a factory worker in Shenzhen, a garbage collector in Cairo, a small-town druggist in rural Colorado, and Chinese lingerie dealers in Upper Egypt. Before joining The New Yorker, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Fuling, a small Chinese city on the Yangtze River. He is the author of five books, including a trilogy about the ten-plus years that he spent in China: “River Town”; “Oracle Bones,” which was a National Book Award finalist; and “Country Driving.“ His book about Egypt, “The Buried,” was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the winner of an American Society of Magazine Editors Award and in 2011 was named a MacArthur Fellow. He lives in Chengdu, China.