The US-China Podcast

How does restraint in Chinese statecraft challenge the standard narrative about rising powers’ behavior? Conventional wisdom holds that China’s rise is disrupting the global balance of power in unpredictable ways. However, China has often deferred to the consensus of smaller neighboring countries on regional security. In Power and Restraint in China’s Rise (Columbia University Press), Chin-Hao Huang argues that China’s aspirations for legitimacy and acceptance provide a rationale for refraining from coercive measures. His findings show why paying attention to the targets of Chinese power matters and what the future of engagement with China might look like.

In a conversation with Carl Minzner conducted on September 16, 2022, Chin-Hao Huang explains why China considers the views and interests of small states, and how collective action can induce change in its behavior.

0:00-2:51 Introduction 2:51-10 Key questions and accessibility 10:00-15:13 Chinese constructive engagement 15:13-20:12 U.S. economic involvement and revisionist powers 20:13-24:07 Has constructive engagement failed? 24:07-36:11The China Questions 2

About the speakers: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/power-and-restraint-chinas-rise/

Follow Carl Minzner on Twitter: @CarlMinzner

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

Following decades of growth and development, Chinese officials, businesses, and institutions now play a critical role in every major global issue. The challenges posed by climate change, pandemics, and emerging technologies make dealing with the Chinese state, its firms, and other institutions more complex and more critical than ever before. In China’s Next Act: How Sustainability and Technology are Reshaping China’s Rise and the World’s Future (Oxford University Press), Scott Moore argues that none of these increasingly pressing, shared global challenges can be tackled without China and, as a result, that the world must re-envision China’s rise and global role in in terms of sustainability and technology.

In conversation with Angel Hsu on September 15, 2022, Dr. Moore explores China’s part to play in tackling shared ecological and technological challenges.

1:51-6:14 Why now? U.S.-China scientific collaboration or rivalry?

6:14-10:30 Cooperation vs. competition

10:30-14:00 Climate and clean energy

14:00-20:22 Can we cooperate with China on climate policy?

20:22-24:45 Chinese innovation

24:45-31:04 How to reengage with Chinese counterparts

About the speakers: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/chinas-next-act/

Follow Scott Moore on Twitter: @water_futures

Follow Angel Hsu on Twitter: @ecoangelhsu

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

As China and the United States increasingly compete for power in key areas of U.S. influence, great power conflict looms. China’s Rise in the Global South examines China’s behavior as a rising power in two key global south regions: the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. Dawn Murphy compares and analyzes thirty years of China’s interactions with these regions in several areas: politics, economics, foreign aid, and military. From the Belt and Road Initiative to the founding of new cooperation forums and special envoys, Dr. Murphy’s book offers an in-depth look at China’s foreign policy approach to the countries it considers its partners in South-South cooperation.

In a conversation with Lina Benabdallah held on August 19, 2022, Dawn C. Murphy argues that China is constructing an alternative international order.

0:00- 3:33  Introduction

3:33-7:50 China’s Alternative World Order

7:50-17:45 China in the Middle East and Africa

17:45-25:45 Chinese-Global South mediation and diplomacy

25:45- 30:08 China studies during COVID

30:08- Economic slowdown

About the speakers: https://ncuscr.org/events/chinas-rise-global-south

Follow Lina Benabdallah on Twitter: @LBenabdallah

Follow Dawn Murphy on Twitter: @DawnMurphyChina

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

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this interview are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.

Will China become the global leader in higher education in the 21st century? The modern research university was born in 19th century Germany; during the 20th, the United States took the lead. In his book Empires of Ideas, William C. Kirby argues that Chinese universities are among the most innovative educational centers in the world. Professor Kirby examines the successes of several leading universities in Germany and the United States, and compares them to three Chinese universities aspiring to become world-class institutions that can compete with the best that United States and Europe have to offer.

In an interview conducted on August 16, 2022, William C. Kirby examines the rise of the modern research university and liberal education, and the challenges facing higher education institutions in China, the United States, and Germany.

0:00 How did U.S. universities come to lead the world?

3:58 What makes a great university?

6:16 How did the German university model change higher education? 9:53: Why are Harvard, Berkeley, and Duke important to understand for the future of U.S. higher ed?

17:08 What can about Tsinghua, Nanjing University, and the University of Hong Kong tell us about Chinese higher ed?

26:00 Are there barriers to conducting research at Chinese universities?

29:03 Is the deteriorating U.S.-China relationship affecting higher ed in both countries?

About the speaker: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/chinese-modern-universities/

Follow William C. Kirby on Twitter (@BillKirbyHBS)

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

China’s engagement and influence in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have grown with the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative into the region. Increased American attention suggests changes in a complex triangular relationship. What is China's ambition in the region? What would LAC countries stand to gain from more robust partnerships with China? Will they feel pressure to choose between China and the United States?

In a conversation moderated by Xiaoyu Pu on August 12, 2022, Álvaro Méndez and Margaret Myers discuss China’s growing involvement in LAC and its implications for the United States.

About the speakers: https://ncuscr.org/events/latin-america-china

Follow Xiaoyu Pu on Twitter: @pu_xiaoyu

Follow Margaret Myers on Twitter: @MyersMargaret

Follow Álvaro Méndez on Twitter: @alvaroimendez

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

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was first discussed ten years ago. What has happened over the past ten years? Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, BRI’s current state and future trajectories are more confusing and controversial than ever. Do China’s leading coalitions still support BRI? Min Ye discusses the current status and future directions of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in conversation with Ka Zeng.

0:00 Introduction

2:20 Who are the BRI actors?

7:48 Global and domestic impact

14:39 Transparency and corruption

20:30 U.S.-China competition

30:14 Economy

32:24 Cooperation

About the speakers: https://ncuscr.org/events/chinas-belt-and-road

Follow Min Ye on Twitter: @beltbeyond

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

Taiwan is a major flashpoint amid escalating tensions in U.S.-China relations. Ryan Hass, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, explains U.S. policy on Taiwan and China’s forceful reactions to perceived changes in the status quo.

0:48 — One China Principle vs Policy

3:11 — What is strategic ambiguity?

6:05 — Pelosi's Taiwan visit—why does China care so much?

10:32 — Future of U.S.-China relations

About the speaker: https://ncuscr.org/events/taiwan-china-united-states

Follow Ryan Hass on Twitter: @ryanl_hass

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

Increasingly powerful, prosperous, and authoritarian, China under the leadership of Xi Jinping has become an increasingly intense competitor across the globe economically, technologically, diplomatically, militarily, and in seeking to influence people’s hearts and minds. But what does China ultimately want in the world?

In Daring to Struggle: China’s Global Ambitions Under Xi Jinping, Bates Gill explains the fundamental motivations driving the country’s dynamic, assertive, and risk-taking approach to the world under Xi Jinping. In an interview conducted on July 21, 2022, Bates Gill analyzes how the pursuit of six major goals – legitimacy, sovereignty, wealth, power, leadership, and ideas – shapes China’s foreign relationships in its Indo-Pacific neighborhood and beyond.

0:00 The book

2:51 Economic growth

8:48 Taiwan

14:23 Xinjiang

18:47 Ukraine

21:55 China as a military threat

26:07 Can diplomacy work?

29:44 People-to-people exchange

33:00 Xi Jinping's mission

About the speaker: https://ncuscr.org/events/daring-to-struggle

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Find the link to Michael Swaine's report here: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/threat-inflation-chinese-military/

According to a recent report by Michael D. Swaine, framing the military challenge Beijing poses in alarmist, worst-case ways weakens the U.S. ability to determine the limits of Chinese threats. It also undermines voices within China that favor moderation, raises the danger of Sino-American crises and military conflict, and diverts U.S. resources away from desperately needed nonmilitary uses at home and abroad.

The United States cannot build its way out of the deepening military competition with China, nor develop a successful long-term China strategy based on inflated threats. It must accept the logic of balance over dominance in many areas, fashion credible strategies designed both to deter and reassure Beijing in both the regional and global arenas, and strengthen its capacities at home.

Michael Swaine discusses more effective approaches than threat inflation to facing China’s increasingly powerful military in an interview conducted on July 8, 2022.

About the speaker: https://ncuscr.org/events/threat-inflation-chinese-military

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

What is Hong Kong? According to the British, a “barren rock” without meaningful history; to China, a part of Chinese soil from the beginning of time, finally returned to its rightful place in 1997. When protests erupted in 2019 and were met with escalating suppression, Louisa Lim, a journalist raised in Hong Kong who as an adult has covered the region for more than a decade, felt compelled to tell Hong Kong’s untold stories. In Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong, Dr. Lim combines history and memoir to explicate Hong Kong’s history, the present reality that Hong Kong is not “just another Chinese city,” and the future that may be unfolding.

In an interview conducted on June 27, 2022, Louisa Lim centers Hong Kongers as she discusses a diverse cast of characters including the memorable and mysterious King of Kowloon.

About the speaker: https://ncuscr.org/events/indelible-city-hong-kong