Beijing: China's top think tank has turned to a New York Times best seller to understand what drives US President Donald Trump.

Amid Trump's increasingly hostile tweets about China, as a $US100 billion ($136 billion) trade war escalates, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the top advisory group to Chinese leaders, has revealed it was doing "a lot of research" on the election of Trump.

By Nancy Isenberg, 2018 edition. Credit:Atlantic Books

Nancy Isenberg's best seller White Trash - The 400 year untold history of class in America, is at the top of the reading list at the academy's Institute of American Studies.

"They think Chinese stole their jobs and companies moved from the US to other countries," said Zhao Mei, the managing editor of the Chinese Journal of American Studies, summarising the main thesis of White Trash.