Messages: Dr. Eric Jay Dolin

Posted on Nov 6, 2014

Messages: Dr. Eric Jay Dolin

Dr. Eric Jay Dolin is an environmental scientist, a researcher and a writer. Dr. Dolin, presenter of the 2014 Hong Kong Lecture, told students the story of how America’s trade relationship with China began. His most recent book, When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail, chronicles the period following the American Revolution through the mid-19th century with tales of the tea, fur and opium trade, clipper ship travels and life in the seaport of Canton.

“During this period, trading between the United States and China was significant, but not particularly important economically or to American policy makers. Things could hardly be more different today. China is the second-largest trading partner behind Canada to the United States. Once measured in tens of millions of dollars, today the China trade is measured in hundreds of billions of dollars, and it’s one of the critical policy issues of the United States.”