How U.S. populism and nationalism affect U.S.-China trade relations

Abstract for graduate thesis

This paper addresses how populism and nationalism affect the US’s China policy and accounts for the relationship between changing corporate interests and a shifting model for US-China trade relations. The paper recognizes two contradictions: the first is Trump’s working class rhetoric yet corporate support and policy that benefits the elite; the second is how US corporate interests align with tariffs placed on Chinese goods. By highlighting how US corporate interests drive domestic and foreign policy, the paper builds a collective action framework to explain the use of nationalist narratives in framing populist campaigns to resolve contradiction one. This paper further looks at two trade shock case studies to resolve contradiction two: by testing the correlation between anti-Chinese rhetoric, its resulting protectionist policy, and US-China trade outcomes between 2016-2020.

While globalization has objectively exacerbated income inequality in the US and spurred domestic discontent, voters can either actively frame their socioeconomic issues and pursue policy change (bottom-up collective action) or passively depend on a politician to frame the issues and direct blame (top-down collective action). This model reflects how politicians obscure the corporate interests that still govern domestic affairs by using nationalist narratives and top-down collective action-led populism. However, there remains the question of whether US corporate interests truly drive US-China trade relations, as the Trump administration’s protectionism appears to go against the laissez-faire and liberal economics that corporations have preferred. As such, this paper explores whether the US-China trade war has substantively altered bilateral trade volumes and structures. Between 2016 and 2020, trade volume remained relatively unchanged from the pre-trade war era, though the pandemic lowered bilateral trade volume briefly. However, when we look at US imports from China as a proportion of total US imports, we see a significant drop in relative trade between the nations.

In light of this contradiction, this paper posits that the dominant corporate interests in the US have shifted since 2016—both in response to China’s non-Western, self-sufficient economic policy and due to the manufacturing businesses that are closer to Trump. Ultimately, US corporate interests may change over time, but they continue to drive the US’s China policy. While tariffs have affected the proportional dependence of the US on Chinese imports, the increasing trade volume suggests that despite rising US nationalism and populist campaigns, economic decoupling is not on the horizon.

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Food security in crisis: Assessing the social challenges of women farmworkers in agricultural America

Excerpt from a policy brief for Women in International Security (WIIS)

There are several relevant legal statutes pertaining to the protection of migrant farmworkers in the US food supply system. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is administered and enforced by the Wage and Hour Division (WHD), an agency within the US Department of Labor (DOL). The FLSA establishes standards for minimum wages, overtime pay, recordkeeping and child labor. It also provides working terms for transportation, housing and minimum safety/health conditions in the fields which are applicable for H-2A visa holders, but not for undocumented farmworkers. However, people employed in agriculture are exempt from overtime pay provisions as they do not have to be paid time and one half their regular rates of pay for excess labor. Additionally, any agriculture employer who does not utilize more than 500 “man days” of agricultural labor in any calendar quarter, is exempt from the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the FLSA. A “man day” is defined as any day during which an employee performs agricultural work for at least one hour. 

The Migrant Seasonal and Agricultural Protection Act (MSPA) safeguards migrant and seasonal agricultural workers by establishing standards for wages, housing, transportation and recordkeeping. It is intended to protect most migrant and seasonal agricultural workers from labor violations by labor contractors, employers, agricultural associations and housing providers. OSHA further requires farm labor contractors to register with the US DOL. However, labor contractors, employers and housing providers from family farms and small businesses are exempted from the MSPA. Further, the MPSA specifically exempts labor unions, thus denying farmworkers the right to bargain collectively without retaliation. 

Most farmworkers are forced to live in atrocious housing conditions. The Housing Assistance Council (2001) surveyed 4,600 farmworker households and found that 52 percent were crowded and 53 percent lacked working bathtubs/showers, a laundry machine, or both. While OSHA is responsible for regulating housing conditions for farmworkers, in practice regulations are not enforced. Culp and Umbarger (2004) describe how employers fail to provide adequate access to laundry or clean water. Inability to clean pesticide soiled clothing, or wash fruits and vegetables with clean water, exposes farmworkers to extensive risks. For instance, they are six times more likely to contract tuberculosis than other working adults.

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Loan shark or loan savior? Chinese engagement with Sri Lanka

Intro for course paper

Chinese engagement with Sri Lanka will only be sustainable if it involves concessional loans and investments that focus on modernizing Sri Lanka’s key industries. Sri Lanka requires real economic gains that will assist the government in repaying Chinese and other foreign debtors in the future. Modernization efforts that push Sri Lanka to shift from being predominantly agricultural to more manufacturing-based and automated will enable the country to follow China’s growth path in the 1990s. An FDI project of this kind can be seen in the Rubber Master Plan that seeks to modernize the extensive rubber industry in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s development could be another iteration of the Leading Dragons Phenomenon, currently visible in certain African countries and Southeast Asian countries. China’s higher wages are pushing it to transition from certain manufacturing industries, meaning Sri Lanka could potentially pick up the sectors that China is leaving behind—the garment industry, in particular. If Chinese engagement evaluates Sri Lanka’s industries, ability to repay, and its political environment, it will be able to fund projects that are both sustainable and profitable.

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