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The US approach to China, H. R. McMaster argues, has long been based on the faulty assumption that China will “play by the rules” once integrated into the international political and economic order. Instead, the United States must think empathetically to understand what China really wants — and then plan accordingly. Join McMaster and The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg as the...
Chinese President Xi Jinping is poised to start his second five-year term when the 19th Party Congress convenes in Beijing this fall. Under him, a new generation of leaders will emerge as China continues to position itself for maximum strategic and economic influence around the globe. As the United States enters an era of “America first,” Beijing is launching projects of s...
Under Xi Jinping, China has become more authoritarian at home and more aggressive overseas. As China becomes increasingly economically dominant, what are the economic, political, and military realities of America’s most important “frenemy”? Panelists with unique insights into the world’s most populous country give us an in-depth look.
In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. With heightened political tensions and an ongoing trade war, some experts argue that new ways of thinking about America’s relationship with China are necessary. Business leaders point out that we are deeply invested in China, such that n...
China’s economy is slowing and the world has no choice but to pay attention. And in Beijing, Xi Jinping’s administration pursues policies increasingly divergent from democratic ideals. These developments are philosophically challenging, especially as they concern the world’s largest population and second-largest economy. And yet they also pose threats to multilateral coope...
China is the world’s biggest energy consumer and carbon emitter. It needs more energy, and it wants it cleaner. So it’s pursuing the biggest push for low-carbon energy the world has ever seen. But China’s green drive is messy and uncertain – full of geopolitical fighting, technological uncertainty, and investor risk. What’s happening? Who’s profiting? And will it do much f...
The US government misjudged the rise of China over the last decade — as the country has grown in economic power, it's become more rambunctious internationally, not less. Its Belt and Road Initiative is winning over countries that used to be US allies. It’s expanding its military power and reach in the South China Sea, attacking US companies in cyberspace, and advancing in...
Winner of the 2014 National Book Award, Osnos based “Age of Ambition” on eight years of living in Beijing, and traces the rise of the individual in China, and the clash between aspiration and authoritarianism. (Book signing to follow.)
The China-US relationship appears to have arrived this year at two inter-related flashpoints, on trade and technology, as President Trump’s administration enters a trade war that has destabilized world markets and has gone to war too against China’s tech giant Huawei. What’s really at the core of the trade dispute—and just how dominant is China’s lead on next-generation 5G...
Are young people in each country likely to get along better than their parents’ generation? Mutual mistrust seems to define the attitudes of today’s leaders, but does the younger generation offer hope — or are the forces of fear and nationalism likely to trump the need for cooperation?
After 40 years of largely cooperative Sino-US relations, policymakers, politicians, and pundits on both sides of the Pacific see growing tensions between the United States and China. Some go so far as to predict a future of conflict, driven by the inevitable rivalry between an established and a rising power, and urge their leaders to prepare now for a future showdown. Othe...
In 2018, economic activity was accelerating in almost all regions of the world. One year later, much has changed. The escalation of US-China trade tensions, credit tightening in China, and macroeconomic stress in key G20 economies have all contributed to a weakened global expansion. As the US trade war with China deepens, what are the biggest risks at this delicate moment?...
With renewed conflict on the international stage, India’s decades-long policy of nonalignment, together with its surpassing China as the most populous nation, have arguably positioned it to become the world’s newest superpower. To what ends is it harnessing its growing influence and geopolitical independence?
After decades with no significant geopolitical rivals, the United States now faces the emergence of China as a major adversary. How will this change the landscape of the emerging world order? What new forms of geopolitical conflict will arise, and what new forms of cooperation are necessary?
Ongoing war in Ukraine and the resulting tensions between the West, Russia, and China have made the NATO alliance all the more significant, and yet perhaps more vulnerable. What lies ahead as the alliance’s member nations assess each other’s commitments to their mutual security?
World order is never in stasis for too long. And indeed, we seem to be witnessing a historic shift now. The relatively stable decades after World War II saw gains for global democracies, rapid economic growth fueled by globalization, and the birth of the Internet. But they also saw the speeding of global warming, widening inequality, and the scourge of transnational terror...
Trump in America, Brexit in the U.K., anti-EU parties in Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, and Hungary, and nativist or authoritarian leaders in Turkey, Russia, India, and China -- Why has nationalism suddenly returned with a vengeance? Why has globalization become a dirty word? Can a new international order be created that doesn't dismiss what is c...
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, foreign policy strategists continue to debate what motivates Russian President Vladimir Putin and what could be his endgame. Not far behind are concerns about Chinese President Xi Jinping and whether developments in Europe will reverberate in the Far East. What do Putin and Xi have in common? What brings them together, and conve...
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has upended settled arrangements of the balance of geopolitical power and raised questions about the US approach to foreign affairs more broadly. What does the conflict in Europe mean for the challenges presented by China and other actors on the global stage? What will US leadership in the Middle East look like going forward? Has the volatility...
The hard work of diplomacy, often mostly invisible, is arguably more important now than ever. In a shifting geopolitical landscape characterized by the emergence of Russia and China as significant rivals to the United States, new dangers threaten the American idea and an American-led world order. And yet, our diplomatic muscles have atrophied. Ambassador William Burns, pre...