This is an IHeart podcast.

I'm Maeve Higgins and this is Solvable, interviews with the world's most innovative thinkers working to solve the world's biggest problems.

I think a solvable is preventing armed conflict between China and the United States.

That is Kevin Rudd, the former Prime Minister of Australia. He's now the president of the Asia

Society Policy Institute. Okay, so as of this year, the United States has the world's largest

economy and China has the second largest. But most economists estimate that China will

overtake the United States as the largest economy in around 10 to 15 years. As China grows,

the increasing rivalry between the two countries has led to an increasingly

rocky relationship. While President Trump has said that he and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping,

will always be friends, the US administration has been expressing serious concerns about China.

In June, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said to a news conference,

China wants to be the dominant economic and military power of the world, spreading its authoritarian

vision for society and its corrupt practices worldwide. The tensions between the two countries

are playing out through the economy and through national security.

In the United States, there are concerns about Chinese ownership of US infrastructure

and the potential for Chinese-made products to be used to spy on or damage the US.

And the two countries remain in dispute over territorial issues in the South China Sea.

Looking at the economy, last year the US imposed three rounds of tariffs on more than

$250 billion worth of Chinese goods, on everything from handbags to railway equipment.

China hit back by imposing tariffs on US products, including chemicals, coal and medical equipment.

But while officially Washington and Beijing have agreed to a truce in their escalating trade war,

experts, including Kevin Rudd, who spent much of his career as a diplomat and China expert,

...