The State of the U.S.-China Relationship
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 24 August 2020
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In recent months, relations between the United States and China seem to have reached a new low as disagreements over trade, tech, human rights and the coronavirus have led the two sides to exchange increasingly harsh rhetoric. Just weeks ago, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went so far as to suggest that the decades-long experiment of U.S. engagement with China had been a mistake. But is this heightened tension just a bump in the road, or is it a new direction for one of the United States's most important bilateral relationships? To discuss these issues, Scott R. Anderson sat down with an all-star panel of China watchers, including Tarun Chhabra of the Brookings Institution and Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Elsa Kania of the Center for a New American Security, and Rob Williams, executive director of the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School.
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Transcript
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| 0:22.0 | rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.0 | So on the one hand, you know, Beijing may see an opportunity |
| 0:39.0 | with US relative power in decline generally, |
| 0:42.0 | and the US distracted by COVID-19 more specifically, |
| 0:46.0 | you know, on the other hand, China faces enormous challenges, |
| 0:50.0 | especially on the domestic front, with slowing growth, |
| 0:54.0 | a massive debt overhang, and some pretty tough choices ahead |
| 0:59.0 | in terms of taking the painful steps needed to avoid the so-called |
| 1:03.0 | middle-income trap, which may help to explain at least in part |
| 1:07.0 | the fear of domestic instability. |
| 1:10.0 | And so you add to that the Chinese government's desire |
| 1:13.0 | to deflect attention from its own bungling of the pandemic |
| 1:18.0 | in the early days, and the subsequent economic impact for China |
| 1:22.0 | and for the global economy. |
| 1:25.0 | You know, so I tend to think it could be some of both insecurity |
| 1:28.0 | compounded by arrogance leading to an overplaying of China's hand. |
| 1:35.0 | I'm Scott Aranterson, and this is the LawFair podcast for August 24, 2020. |
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