Former NSC official Jeff Prescott on China-Iran relations
Sinica Podcast
Kaiser Kuo
4.8 • 676 Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2020
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the aftermath of the targeted killing of Qasem Soleimani in early January, Kaiser talked to Jeff Prescott, a veteran China-watcher who now serves as a senior advisor to the Penn Biden Center. Jeff previously served as Special Assistant to President Obama, Senior Director for Iran, Iraq, Syria, and the Gulf States on the National Security Council, and Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Biden.
This show was taped live at the inaugural U.S.-China Series conference in Seattle, Washington, on January 15, 2020.
6:05: Bringing China into the Iran Nuclear Deal
12:31: The role of oil in China-Iran relations
21:36: Reflections on the trade war and phase one trade deal
32:49: Creating a grand strategy while China looms large
Recommendations:
Jeff: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson.
Kaiser: Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power (The Lamar Series in Western History), by Pekka Hämäläinen.
This podcast was edited and produced by Kaiser Kuo and Jason MacRonald.
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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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this special live recording of the Cynica podcast. |
| 0:11.8 | We'll discuss with current fairs in China coming here today from downtown Seattle, |
| 0:15.8 | Washington at the inaugural US-China Series conference. |
| 0:19.8 | Let me hear what it would have sounded like if the Seahawks had beaten the Packers on Sunday night. |
| 0:29.0 | All right. |
| 0:30.0 | That's how it was, it would have sounded something like that. |
| 0:32.3 | I want to give a huge, huge shout out to two, two, three people, to Michael Rodding and to Paul Crick., and of course, to Sam Sacks, who've put together what I think is just a fantastic event. |
| 0:43.1 | It's just been really great. |
| 0:44.3 | I've really enjoyed myself. |
| 0:46.4 | The Cynica podcast is produced in partnership with SubChina, signing up for SubChina's daily email newsletter for a bountiful feast of business, political, and cultural |
| 0:55.0 | news about a nation that is reshaping the world. So on the very early morning of January 3rd, |
| 1:02.7 | a Reaper drone fired a barrage of missiles at a two-vehicle convoy near Baghdad airport. In one of |
| 1:08.7 | those cars was Iranian Quds Force commander Kassim Soleimani, |
| 1:13.4 | believed by many to be the second most powerful man in Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. |
| 1:19.7 | It did not take long for China Twitter, of all places, to light up with hot takes and speculation |
| 1:24.9 | about how Beijing would react and how China would be impacted. |
| 1:28.9 | While we might not all be in agreement with those who variously claimed that it was a gift to |
| 1:33.9 | Xi Jinping or that it would drag China into the Middle Eastern morass, one thing is clear that |
| 1:39.5 | just a dozen years or so ago, few would have bothered to make any connection between events |
| 1:44.9 | in Baghdad and Beijing's geopolitical calculations. So so many people did in this case. And that |
| 1:51.9 | very fact, I think, and that they did it so quickly is evidence of the reshaping that I bang on |
| 1:57.5 | about each week as I start the show. So today I am delighted to be joined by Jeffrey Prescott. |
... |
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