| The U.S.-China bilateral relationship is the salient issue in American foreign policy and will remain so for the foreseeable future, well beyond the current COVID-19 crisis or, for that matter, the upcoming U.S. presidential elections. At the core of the matter is geopolitical competition between a rising power on the one hand and a status quo power on the other, manifesting itself initially in the East Asia Pacific Region but now also extending to other geographies. Accompanying this political tension is an overlay of substantial economic integration, as distinct from the Cold War, when there was minimal economic activity between the Free World and the Soviet Bloc. Successive U.S. presidents since Richard Nixon have sought to manage U.S.-China ties in a constructive, positive-sum fashion, although in recent years this has become progressively more difficult with China’s geopolitical rise and increased assertiveness. We appear to be at a crossroads. Can the U.S. continue to manage relations with China on a constructive basis, isolating areas of difference to keep them from contaminating the overall relationship? Or have we reached a tipping point where the relationship will become one of acute political rivalry and ever-increasing economic decoupling? How much might ties be affected by the outcome of the upcoming U.S. presidential elections? Could 2021 be a better year for the relationship, or will it inevitably be worse?
Join this discussion featuring Concordia Leadership Council Member John Negroponte, former Deputy Secretary of State (where he represented the U.S. on the U.S.-China Strategic Political Dialogue) and first Director of National Intelligence, and currently Vice Chairman of McLarty Associates; China expert John Holden, who has held a lifetime of academic, NGO, and business positions related to China, including seven years as President of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and currently Senior Director and leader of McLarty Associates’ China practice; and moderator Sam Vinograd, a Concordia Advisor and national security expert who is Senior Advisor at the Biden Institute and Co-Founder and Managing Director of Global Opportunity Advisors. |
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