The U.S. and Chinese economies are large and interconnected, but both countries have dramatically different visions for the global economy. How is the United States trying to grow and safeguard its economic strength, and how does China position itself as both a disruptor of the status quo and a leader of a new path forward?
Our new series, Faultlines, examines the strategic differences between the United States and China. The two nations differ in how they see economic, military, cultural, and governance issues, but was this always the case? By examining the view from both sides of the faultline can piece together how we got here and where we’re going next.
Wendy Edelberg and Ka Zeng joined us in June 2025 to discuss how economic challenges appear from differing U.S. and Chinese perspectives in the dimensions of trade, industry, foreign investment, and economic influence.
Ka Zeng
Ka Zeng’s research focuses on China’s role in the global economy, in particular Chinese trade policy, China’s behavior in global economic governance, and China-related trade dispute dynamics. Dr. Zeng is the author or co-author of Trade Threats, Trade Wars (Michigan, 2004), Greening China (Michigan, 2011) and Fragmenting Globalization(Michigan, 2021). She is also the editor or co-editor of China’s Foreign Trade Policy (Routledge, 2007), China and Global Trade Governance (Routledge, 2013), Handbook on the International Political Economy of China (Edward Elgar, 2019), the Research Handbook on Trade Wars (Edward Elgar, 2022), and China and the WTO (Cambridge, 2023). She is a contributor to journals such as International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Organizations, Review of International Political Economy, World Development, Economics & Politics, Business and Politics, Journal of Experimental Political Science, Journal of World Trade, International Interactions, China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Social Science Quarterly, Chinese Journal of International Politics, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Pacific Affairs, and China & World Economy. Dr. Zeng is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations. She is also a fellow in cohort V of the Public Intellectuals Program sponsored by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
Wendy Edelberg
Wendy Edelberg is a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. She served as director of The Hamilton Project at Brookings from 2020 to March 2025. She is also a principal at WestExec Advisors.
She joined Brookings after more than fifteen years in the public sector. Most recently, she was chief economist at the Congressional Budget Office. Prior to working at CBO, Edelberg was the executive director of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which released its report on the causes of the financial crisis in January 2011. Previously, she worked on issues related to macroeconomics, housing, and consumer spending at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during two administrations. Before that, she worked on those same issues at the Federal Reserve Board. In 2022, Edelberg was appointed as a co-chair of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Climate and Macroeconomics Roundtable.
Edelberg is a macroeconomist whose research has spanned a wide range of topics, from household spending and saving decisions, to the economic effects of fiscal policy, to systemic risks in the financial system. In addition, at CBO and the Federal Reserve Board, she worked on forecasting the macroeconomy. Edelberg received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. from Columbia University.