BREAKDOWN: The Biggest Realignment in the US-China Relationship Since Nixon, Feat. Graham Webster
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2020
⏱️ 88 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How one of the world’s most important geopolitical relationships came to be what it is in 2020.
This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Ciphertrace.
The U.S.-China relationship has an outsized impact on global economics and politics. As that relationship comes even more into focus in the wake of COVID-19, this episode provides a historical primer.
Graham Webster is editor-in-chief of the Stanford–New America DigiChina Project at the Stanford University Cyber Policy Center. He’s also a China digital economy fellow at the New America think tank.
In this episode, Webster explains:
- Why the relationship with the U.S. has been at the forefront of Chinese policy since the People’s Republic of China was formed, but has flitted in and out of America’s focus.
- Why the first most significant period in the U.S.-China relationship came between the late 1960s and 1970s, as the U.S.-China relationship normalized.
- How Tiananmen Square undermined but didn’t destroy the relationship.
- Why George W. Bush came into office with an intention to focus on China but got distracted in the wake of 9/11.
- Why China has spent the last decade becoming increasingly illiberal.
- How the rise of social media contributed to the shift.
- Why China and U.S. policy is as much a reflection of domestic self-identity in both countries as it is a bilateral political question.
- Why China’s human rights abuses present such a challenge.
- How COVID-19 changes the relationship.
Find our guest online:
Twitter: gwbstr
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
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| 0:53.8 | Welcome back to the breakdown, an everyday analysis breaking down the most important stories in Bitcoin, crypto, and beyond. |
| 1:03.2 | This episode is sponsored by BitStamp and Cipher Trace. |
| 1:07.5 | The breakdown is produced and distributed by Coin Desk. |
| 1:12.2 | And now, here's your host, NLW. |
| 1:17.6 | Welcome back to the breakdown. |
| 1:19.8 | It is Friday, June 5th, and today we are talking about the U.S.-China relationship. |
| 1:26.4 | It is undeniable that the relationship between these two powers |
| 1:30.0 | is one of the most significant drivers of global geopolitics as well as global economies. |
| 1:36.2 | We have experienced acutely the connection and interdependence and reliance in ways that we may not |
| 1:42.8 | have even thought about in the context of the COVID-19 |
| 1:46.4 | pandemic, both in terms of the health implications of a globalized society where |
| 1:51.6 | virus once released will find its way everywhere, but also in terms of how we were or weren't |
... |
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