Events Archive

With an increasingly assertive foreign policy accentuated by occasionally strident rhetoric to its competitors internationally, some in the business community are asking: “what does China want?” The answer can be found in China’s past. In a colorful, informative story filled with fascinating characters, epic battles, influential thinkers, and decisive moments, the new book “Superpower Interrupted” helps us understand how the Chinese view their own history -- a narrative is distinctly different from that of Western civilization.

President Trump has been aggressively exercising his executive power in challenging China’s leadership on the basis of US national security, through multiple executive orders and tariff measures that aim to cut China out of the supply chain for US critical infrastructure, such as telecom, power grids, and raw materials like steel and aluminum. In Congress, there is also an intensifying effort to address Chinese national security concerns, with the House GOP in particular elevating tough-on-China messaging as a key campaign strategy in its fight to regain a majority.

The US-China Business Council hosted an off-the-record conversation with US Ambassador to China Terry Branstad. The ambassador updated members on US-China relations following the conclusion of the US-China Phase One trade deal in January, and amidst global uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Punditry around the COVID-19 pandemic has proffered two polar opposite conclusions regarding future international relations: the pandemic changes everything; the pandemic reinforces everything. Will the US and China engage in meaningful reform of institutions and governing ethos, or will they double down on existing systems and mindset? Business consultant and economist Robert Koepp, founder and Principal at Geoeconomix, joined us from Los Angeles where he has produced a new analysis that takes a middle road between these extremes.