Explains how US–China trade tensions reflect deeper contradictions in American capitalism, showing how protectionist narratives obscure long-term crises of profitability, inequality, and global economic change.

Trade War over the Pacific examines protectionist ideology in US–China relations as a discourse that reflects and mediates deeper structural contradictions in capitalist accumulation. Author Barry Murdaco argues that since the 1970s, the US economy has faced recurring profitability crises rooted in the internal dynamics of capitalism, intensified by neoliberal restructuring, stagnant wages, rising inequality, and financialization. Unable to resolve these tensions domestically, US political and economic elites increasingly externalize blame onto China. Through a detailed analysis of political discourse, think-tank publications, and media narratives—including The New York Times—alongside a comparative study of US–Japan trade conflicts in the 1980s, the book traces recurring patterns in empirical and normative claims about national security, trade, and competitiveness. By reconstructing these validity claims, Murdaco demonstrates how protectionism functions ideologically, shaping both elite and public understandings of global capitalism and contemporary international conflict.