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Meet Timothy Trainer, intellectual property attorney, international trade expert, author with spectacular insights into trade with China — and more!
Timothy Trainer's new podcast and video show is live! Be sure to listen, watch, and stay up to date with Tim's blog, where he regularly writes about topics that provide a glimpse into how the Trump administration handles international trade. What inspires these posts, and what can readers hope to learn? Listen to our interview here, and read all about it at TimothyTrainer.com.
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Meet Timothy Trainer, intellectual property attorney, international trade expert, author with spectacular insights into trade with China — and more!
Writing books is a passion for attorney Timothy Trainer, who for more than three decades focused on intellectual property issues in his day job. He has worked in government agencies and in the private sector and his assignments have taken him to 60 countries around the world.
Tim found time to pen a few non-fiction tomes, including his first book, Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights; the 15th edition was published in 2022. Thomson Reuters’ Aspatore Books published Tim’s next title in 2015, Potato Chips to Computer Chips: The War on Fake Stuff.
Fiction was a genre he always wanted to try. In 2019, Pendulum Over the Pacific, was released by Joshua Tree Publishing. “This political intrigue story is set in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., and centers on trade tensions between the U.S. and Japan in the late 1980s,” Tim explains.
In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.
Here’s the story: It’s a year after Hong Kong reverted to China. Aaron and Kellie’s dual purpose in Hong Kong, their trip for business and pleasure, descends into chaos when Kellie fails to deliver the blueprint Chinese entrepreneurs seek in hopes of greater riches in the U.S. market. After a day-long meeting, she awakens across the border in southern China the next morning without her travel documents. Aaron, while waiting for Kellie’s return, is attacked in his hotel room.
He panics. Helpless, Aaron enlists the aid of Roger, a retired Customs attaché in Hong Kong. Roger questions the nature of the contents of millions of containers leaving Hong Kong and wonders how he can profit from it. Aaron and Roger cobble together a group of people to rescue Kellie from across the border. This small group of government and non-government people engage in questionable tactics to find Kellie. Can the group come together to save Kellie or will their personal ambitions prevail?
In this novel, Tim takes us back to the spring of 2005. The FBI foils a government employee’s attempt to provide confidential information to the Chinese. As the FBI struggles to understand why the information is valuable, its investigation entangles Capitol Hill staffer Kellie Liang and jeopardizes her nomination to a State Department position.
Under scrutiny, Kellie thrusts herself into the FBI investigation. Seeking a voice of reason, Kellie reaches out to Aaron Foster only to learn that he is vacationing in Vietnam with his uncle, a war veteran. Surprisingly, Aaron believes he has found a Chinese corporate connection to information theft. From two sides of the world, Kellie and Aaron work to thwart China’s efforts and save Kellie’s nomination.
Learn more about this book and Tim’s writing process when he’s interviewed by author Jeffrey James Higgins’ for his new Inkandescent podcast and video show: Elaine’s Literary Salon.
Learn about Tim’s work and books: timothytrainer.com
Members of the Commander in Chief’s Guard and The U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps march by Freedom Plaza along Pennsylvania Avenue, during the 58th Presidential Inauguration, Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2017. More than 5,000 military members from across all branches of the armed forces of the United States, including Reserve and National Guard components, provided ceremonial support and Defense Support of Civil Authorities during the inaugural period. (DoD photo by U.S. Army Sgt. Kalie Jones)
Click here to read Tim’s latest blog post: Party and Parade
June 10, 2025 —
We’ve arrived at an interesting place in the history of the United States. As Washington, D.C., prepares for a great parade to celebrate the U.S. Army’s birthday and founding on June 14, 1775, the city prepares for the birthday celebration of the sitting president, whose birthday coincides with that of the U.S. Army.
The White House occupant wants a parade with soldiers, tanks, and other accoutrements projecting strength and power. What an irony given that the White House occupant allowed his father to use the power of money to evade service in uniform at a time when his peers were called upon to serve. It seems that we have now become accustomed to and receptive of older, privileged men who easily wrap themselves in the flag and boast of their patriotism and their manhood despite the lengths to which they or their families would go to avoid service while others served in harm’s way. As Donald Trump Heads to Vietnam, Here’s How He Used Bone Spurs to Avoid War, Military Service – Newsweek. It’s so easy to walk and talk with bravado years after one needs to be concerned about serving in uniform.
