Confessions of an Outsourcer: An Insider Examines the Openings, Closings, Fortunes, and Fallout of the China Trade

Are we really losing at trade with China? A thirty-year insider says the answer will surprise you.

Timothy Brantingham has spent his career in the space between America and China, in the supply chain trenches where theory meets reality. As a fluent Mandarin speaker born in Taiwan, he built factories in Shenzhen and negotiated with suppliers in Ningbo. He saw firsthand how one billion people joined the global marketplace in barely two decades. He also watched as some American towns hollowed out and some families struggled.

But the story politicians tell about winners and losers is incomplete. Confessions of an Outsourcer reveals the unspoken reality. Trade created enormous wealth, but we concentrated the gains at the top instead of investing in disrupted communities. China didn’t steal American jobs. Automation and unrestrained shareholder capitalism did.

Drawing on personal stories from both sides of the Pacific, Brantingham examines myths about the China Shock while acknowledging real problems: intellectual property theft, currency manipulation, and the human cost of rapid change. He demonstrates how we can’t reverse globalization, but we can finally share its benefits fairly.

This is the nuanced, honest reckoning the US-China relationship desperately needs, from someone who loves both countries and refuses to choose between them.