2022 turned out to be an annus horribilis for the relationship between the world’s two largest economy, especially in August when tensions culminated over then house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Following the meeting between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping at the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali last November, the new year of 2023 seems to boast guarded hope at a reprieve in the turbulent relationship. However, the incident of a high-altitude Chinese balloon flying over US airspace just one day before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s scheduled visit to China complicated an attempt by Washington and Beijing to build new guardrails around the bilateral competition.

2023 is a critical year for the bilateral relations with a new US congress inaugurated in January and the Chinese “two sessions” due to install a new administration soon in March. The Russia-Ukraine war is entering its second year of face-off and tension between US and   China on Taiwan will have far-reaching implications for US-China relations. Republican house speaker Kevin McCarthy likely visit to Taiwan may create another crisis across the Taiwan straits and pose major challenges between US and China.

This program features two leading experts on US-China relations – Susan A. Thornton and Douglas Paal at an inflection point, tapping into their extensive knowledge and experience in China, especially in Taiwan, as they both participated in previous administrations’ China policy and Taiwan policy decision-making. This dialogue will be presided by Dr. WANG Huiyao, founder and president of Center for China and Globalization (CCG), who has hosted more than 40 episodes of CCG Global Dialogue series, including more recent ones featuring Larry Summers, Hank Paulson, Richard Haass, Ray Dalio, Niall Ferguson, and others.

The session will cover topics including:

· Review and analysis of trajectory of the bilateral relationship under the Biden administration

· Implications of the recent diplomatic tension and recommendations for moving forward

· Managing the Taiwan question between US and China: perspectives on risks and solutions

· Great powers and global responsibilities: prospects and proposals for US-China cooperation on the world stage

When:

Language:

English/Mandarin simultaneous interpretation

Baidu live:

https://live.baidu.com/m/media/multipage/liveshow/index.html?room_id=8042568093&source=h5pre

Speakers:

Susan A. Thornton is a Senior Fellow and research scholar at the Yale University Law School Paul Tsai China Center. She is also the director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She is a retired senior U.S. diplomat with almost three decades of experience. She was Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State led East Asia policymaking, and served in leadership positions at U.S. embassies in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus and China.

Dr. Douglas H. Paal is a Distinguished Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He previously served as vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase International and was an unofficial U.S. representative to Taiwan as director of the American Institute in Taiwan. He was on the National Security Council staffs of Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush between 1986 and 1993 as director of Asian Affairs and then as senior director and special assistant to the president. Paal held positions in the policy planning staff at the State Department, as a senior analyst for the CIA, and at U.S. embassies in Singapore and Beijing.