Broken Engagement tells the story of how successive American presidents have handled the U.S.’s vital relationship with China over the last three decades, through the words of those who have been on the front line of dealing with the country’s superpower rival.

Bob Davis, a distinguished former senior editor at the Wall Street Journal and co-author of Superpower Showdown, has conducted a series of interviews for The Wire China with high-ranking politicians and officials who have shaped the U.S.'s policy towards China across six administrations from George HW Bush to Joe Biden. From Nancy Pelosi to Mike Pompeo, from Charlene Barshefsky and Robert Gates to Matt Pottinger and Kurt Campbell, Davis has now spoken with nearly 30 of the people most responsible for Washington's approach to what has become its top geopolitical rival.

Across the interviews the participants give their take on whether the U.S. has been right to engage with China, and whether conflict between the two nations is now inevitable. They describe the pressures under which policy decisions were made and the mistakes that sometimes resulted — as well as some of the behind-the-scenes interactions between American and Chinese leaders.

This book gathers those interviews together in one volume, complete with a preface and introduction by Davis, creating a unique historical record of this vital period in American foreign and economic policy.