The US-China Podcast

From June 18-19, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit China for meetings with high level officials in a bid to stabilize U.S.-China relations and re-establish regular diplomatic communications. After a similar trip was postponed earlier in 2023 due to the unauthorized entry of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon into American airspace, all eyes will be on the U.S.-China diplomatic relationship. 

Veteran diplomat Susan A. Thornton joins the National Committee to discuss why Secretary Blinken’s trip is so important at this moment and what a positive outcome of this meeting would look like for the United States, China, and the world. 

About the speaker

Follow Susan Thornton on Twitter: @suea_thornton

Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).

May was Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, a chance to celebrate the history, diversity, and contributions of the over 25 million members of the AAPI community in the United States. But rising U.S.-China tensions have also come with consequences for the community, particularly Chinese Americans, who have reported increased discrimination and feelings of exclusion in the last few years.

To commemorate AAPI Heritage Month, the Committee invited two professors who have deep experience with the Chinese American community —Qin Gao of Columbia University and Yingyi Ma at Syracuse University— to share their research and what AAPI Month means to them.

0:00-8:57 Discussing the "State of Chinese Americans" Survey with Professor Qin Gao

8:57-17:12 Professor Yingyi Ma on Chinese students studying in the United States 

About Qin Gao

About Yingyi Ma

Anti-Racism Resources

Follow Qin Gao on Twitter: @gaoqin505

Follow Yingyi Ma on Twitter: @yingyi_ma

Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).

Admiral John C. Aquilino, 26th Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, was the keynote speaker at our Annual Members Program on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. His comments, conversation with National Committee President Stephen Orlins, and Q&A focused on Sino-American military policy in the context of the overall bilateral relationship.

0:00-3:57 Introduction

3:57-30:58 Admiral Aquilino’s remarks 

30:58- 58:10 Aquilino discussion

58:10- Q&A

About the speaker: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/indopacom-aquilino/

Read the transcript: https://www.ncuscr.org/podcast/indopacom-aquilino/

Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).

According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in March 2023, a large majority of American adults (83 percent) continue to have negative views of China, and the share who have very unfavorable views (44 percent) has increased by four percentage points since last year. Around four-in-ten Americans also now describe China as an enemy of the United States, rather than as a competitor or a partner – up 13 points since last year. 

Americans are broadly concerned about China’s role in the world. For example, 62 percent of Americans see the China-Russia partnership as a very serious problem for the United States, up five points since October.

In an interview conducted on May 3, 2023, Laura Silver discusses the findings of the March 2023 survey.

About the speaker: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/pew-research-center-study-china/

Pew Research Center survey: https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2023/04/12/americans-are-critical-of-chinas-global-role-as-well-as-its-relationship-with-russia/#:~:text=Around%20four%2Din%2Dten%20Americans,2023%2C%20Pew%20Research%20Center%20survey.

Read the transcript here: https://www.ncuscr.org/podcast/pew-research-center-study-china/

Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).

Conflicts over specific rules lie at the heart of China’s maritime disputes, which are about much more than sovereignty over islands and rocks in the South and East China Seas. Rather, the main contests concern the strategic maritime space associated with those islands. To consolidate control over these vital areas, China’s leaders have begun to implement “China’s law of the sea”: building domestic legal institutions, bureaucratic organizations, and a naval and maritime law enforcement apparatus to establish China’s preferred maritime rules on the water and in the diplomatic arena.   In China’s Law of the Sea, Isaac B. Kardon examines China’s laws and policies and analyzes other claimants’ reactions to China’s practices, because other states must acquiesce for China’s preferences to become international rules.

In an interview conducted on April 28, 2023, Isaac Kardon discusses with Bonnie Glaser China’s legal and policy efforts to defend, exploit, administer, and patrol disputed waters.

0:00-1:00 introductions

1:00-7:50 China’s maritime evolution

7:50-17:45 South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait

17:45-24:09 Southeast Asian maritime order

24:09- How should the world respond?

About the speakers: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/chinas-law-of-the-seas/

Read the transcript here: https://www.ncuscr.org/podcast/chinas-law-of-the-seas/

Follow Bonnie Glaser on Twitter: @BonnieGlaser

Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).

Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) is on a mission to clean up severe air and water pollution in China. Ma Jun, founding director of IPE, discusses the innovation of the Blue Map app and IPE’s efforts to speed up climate actions domestically and abroad.  

In an interview conducted on April 10, 2023, IPE founder Ma Jun discusses the latest developments in IPE’s work. 

About the speaker: https://www.ncuscr.org/video/united-states-china-clean-energy/

Learn more about IPE and China’s climate mitigation here

Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).

Segment 1: China's nonprofit Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) was founded in 2006 to address severe air and water pollution in China and to help safeguard the global environment. It developed the Blue Map, China's first public environmental database and mobile app that tracks air, water, soil, and ocean quality data, as well as the performance of hundreds of thousands of major emitters. The information has been a potent aid for improving environmental governance across China. In 2020, IPE launched the Blue Map for Zero Carbon, and continues to use cooperation between companies, government, NGOs, research organizations and other stakeholders to achieve environmental transformation, promote environmental information disclosure and improve environmental governance mechanisms.

Segment 2: Energy Foundation China is a grantmaking charitable organization registered in California (formally separate from the U.S. Energy Foundation since 2019). It has been working in China since 1999, and is dedicated to China’s sustainable energy development. The Foundation’s vision is to achieve prosperity and a safe climate through sustainable energy. Its mission is to realize greenhouse gas emissions neutrality, world-class air quality, energy access, and green growth through transforming energy and optimizing economic structure. The Foundation works across seven fields: power, industry, transportation, cities, environmental management, low carbon economic growth, and strategic communications.

In an interview moderated by David Sandalow on April 10, 2023, Energy Foundation China President Zou Ji discusses the latest developments in the clean energy transition in China, the priorities of the Energy Foundation, and how the international community is doing in responding to climate change.

About the speakers: www.ncuscr.org/event/climate-action-ipe/ www.ncuscr.org/event/energy-foundation-china/

Read the podcast transcripts here: www.ncuscr.org/podcast/climate-action-ipe/ www.ncuscr.org/podcast/energy-foundation-china/

Follow David Sandalow on Twitter: @dsandalow

Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).

Is China ahead of the United States in developing green technology? Amid the tensions of great power competition and climate change, what can the U.S. and China learn from each other when it comes to protecting the environment? In this special edition Earth Day podcast, we pulled the best content from our 2023 Earth Month interview series to answer the most urgent questions on the U.S.-China climate relationship with insights from American and Chinese experts.

Joining us for this episode are the following four experts on China and the climate crisis:

Angel Hsu, assistant professor of public policy and the environment at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Joanna Lewis, Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor of Energy and Environment and director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program at Georgetown University

Zou Ji, president of the Energy Foundation China

Ma Jun, founding director of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE)

About the speakers: https://www.ncuscr.org/podcast/earth-day-2023

Read the transcript for this podcast

Follow Angel Hsu on Twitter: @ecoangelhsu

Follow Joanna Lewis on Twitter: @JoannaILewis

Follow Ma Jun on Twitter: @MJ_GreenFinance

Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).

The unauthorized entry of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon into American airspace has provided a unique opportunity to examine the ability of Washington and Beijing to handle diplomatic crises. The incident leaves us wondering how the United States can better understand Chinese bureaucratic structure and decision-making and thus more effectively modulate its responses to unforeseen events. How will the two countries deescalate tensions when something more serious than a rogue balloon agitates the relationship? As the ability to interpret signaling accurately and maintain de-escalatory communication between the United States and China become more critical, so too will understanding the answers to these questions. 

In an interview conducted by Oriana Skylar Mastro on April 13, Tyler Jost and Susan Thornton help contextualize the spy balloon incident within China’s bureaucratic decision-making.

0-1:26 Introductions

1:26- 5:38 Why was the balloon a big deal?

5:38-9:54 The (lack of) airspace regulations

9:54-18:24 The U.S. reaction

18:24-24:04 U.S.-China Crisis communication

24:04-26:54 Lightning round

26:54- Who owes who an apology?

About the speakers: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/spy-balloon-china/

Read the transcript for this podcast

Follow Susan Thornton on Twitter: @suea_thornton

Follow Tyler Jost on Twitter: @tcjost

Follow Oriana Skylar Mastro on Twitter: @osmastro

About the speakersSubscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).

Reporting on China is challenging and important. Assignment China tells the stories of some of the American journalists who have covered China from the time of the civil war of the 1940s through the COVID-19 pandemic. Former China correspondent Mike Chinoy assembles personal accounts from eminent journalists who share their stories of reporting on historic moments such as President Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking visit in 1972, China’s opening up to the outside world and its emergence as a global superpower, and the crackdowns in Tiananmen Square and Xinjiang. They describe the challenges of covering a complex society and offer insight into eight decades of tumultuous political, economic, and social change. In an interview conducted on March 22, 2023, Mike Chinoy and Lenora Chu discuss the people who have covered China for American media and how they have shaped American understanding of China.

0:00-3:30 background 

3:30-10:11  truth vs. fiction

10:11-18:09 pre- and post- Mao era media relations

18:09-31:43 Journalism in the Deng era, Tiananmen Square

31:43- How have journalism and narratives changed?

About the speakers: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/american-correspondents-in-china/

Read the transcript for this podcast

Follow Mike Chinoy on Twitter: @mikechinoy

Follow Lenora Chu on Twitter: @LenoraChu

About the speakersSubscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).