Lei Duan and Dan Du highlight the interdependence of corporations in the U.S.-China trade from the late nineteenth century. Duan explores Americans’ lucrative arms trade in China during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Chinese market compensated for the diminishing domestic sales of such leading U.S. arms manufacturers as Colt and Winchester. The success of these firms lies in both the Western technology, notably the rolling breech block system, and Chinese munitions traders, key intermediaries who linked foreign arms corporations with Chinese buyers. With government officials involved, the international arms trade affected Sino-American relations and the broader socio-political landscape in China during a chaotic period. Placing the discourse of incorporation and public interest in the U.S.-China tea trade, Du examines the integration of Chinese collectivism and nationalism with U.S. monopoly capitalism. After the decline of the U.S.-China tea trade from the 1870s, Chinese reformers were eager to form joint-stock corporations to revive China’s withering tea economy. They conceptualized Western-style corporations into Chinese gongsi, a community-based financial and social organization, and adopted the model of U.S. monopoly capitalism, or business trusts, to centralize the management of tea corporations. Against the backdrop of imperial expansion into China, most reformers welcomed the government into their corporations to form the largest trust possible. The “collective turn” of incorporation would lead to the nationalization of tea companies in Republican and Communist China.

Haoran Ni and Zhaojin Zeng emphasize competitions and collaborations between U.S. and Chinese corporations in the twentieth century. Ni elaborates the operation of the Henningsen Produce Company in Shanghai during the Republican Era and its role in the establishment of China’s food brand after 1949. Henningsen’s Hazelwood Ice Cream became the signature product and a token of urban modernity in Republican Shanghai owing to its effective marketing strategies, which spotlighted the company’s American identity and promoted the American way of life. The “Americanness” first contributed to Henningse’s expansion during the 1920s-1930s but jeopardized its business after WWII. Establishing Shanghai Yimin No. 1 Food Factory with Henningsen’s plant and machinery, the PRC government employed anti-Americanism sentiments to promote its own brand, the Guangming Ice Cream, among Chinese consumers. Focusing on the post-Cold War era, Zeng traces the origin of U.S.-China cooperation and competition in the automotive industry through the joint venture of Beijing Jeep. Departing from conventional macro-level analysis centered on diplomats and statesmen, Zeng shifts the attention to grassroots entrepreneurs and transnational corporations, especially their strategies to navigate unfamiliar political and social landscapes, seize opportunities in foreign markets, facilitate technology transfer, and cope with institutional uncertainties. Chinese and American entrepreneurs’ collaborative efforts in establishing capital, technology, and human networks reshaped the post-Cold War global economic order.