July 26, 2025· 60 min

How a Trade War With China Could Become a Hot War

Orality
Model
50%

Speaker Breakdown

HostTracy Alloway(1,368 words)
M:94%
HostJoe Weisenthal(1,136 words)
M:29%
GuestDale Copeland(7,399 words)
M:28%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic33%
literally, completely, very
Engagement59%
you, our, your
Memory Aids100%
listen, now, like
Repetition100%
china (89x), trade (84x), about (78x)
Parallelism88%
And I'm Tracy Alloway...., And I don't know if you rememb..., Or it was not the fact that he...
Sound Patterns41%
46 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"
Formulaic Phrases12%
at the end of the day, you know what, i mean

Literate Indicators

Hedging8%
may, maybe, could
Passive Voice5%
be taxed, be attacked, were coordinated
Abstract Nouns16%
investment, recommendation, community
Subordination7%
while, because, therefore
Sentence Length40%
Avg: 15.1 words/sentence
Word Complexity49%
investment, analyze, anticipate
Academic Markers0%
Impersonal Style41%
668 personal pronouns found
Descriptive Style71%
literally, completely, apply

Description

Tension between the US and China has been building for some time. But so far this has been limited to issues of trade. The US has imposed tariffs on China. It's imposed restrictions on technology exports. In turn, China has imposed some of its own tariffs, and also limited the export of things like rare earth metals. But historically speaking, many hot wars have their roots in some kind of trade-related tensions between nations. So the risk exists that a trade war one day becomes a hot war. So how does this happen, and how can it be avoided? On this episode, we speak with Dale Copeland, a professor of international relations at the University of Virginia. He discusses his theories of trade, and we discuss his most recent book, A World Safe for Commerce: American Foreign Policy From the Revolution to the Rise of China, which specifically discusses the prospect for an outright US-China confrontation. Only Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.