Most people in business have a story about how China has changed their industry, how over the past 30 years it has upended supply chains and grabbed daunting market share. But very few have the sort of China story that John Bassett III has.
One day in November 2002, Mr Bassett, a third-generation furniture maker from Virginia, found himself in China meeting the Communist party official and businessman intent on putting him out of business.
This man’s ambitions and instructions were clear and direct: his company would soon be the biggest furniture manufacturer in the world and resistance was futile. Mr Bassett should shut his US factories and contract his production to China. It was the only way his business would survive.