Trade tensions and the deeper conflicts on technology, economy, and geopolitics can lead to the possibility of China and America decoupling — creating two distinct, rival, economic, technological, and political systems with their own spheres of influences. In the Eighth Robert F. Ellsworth Memorial Lecture at the University of California San Diego, former Prime Minister of Australia and Asia Society Policy Institute President Kevin Rudd explains the arguments by American and Chinese hawks in this current dynamic and where they may take U.S.-China relations.

The event will start with a talk at 12:30 p.m., followed by a reception at 2 p.m.

Speakers

The Hon. Kevin Rudd is inaugural President of the Asia Society Policy Institute. He served as 26th Prime Minister of Australia (2007 to 2010, 2013) and as Foreign Minister (2010 to 2012). He is Chair of the Board of the International Peace Institute in New York, and Chair of Sanitation and Water for All, a global partnership of government and non-government organizations dedicated to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 6. He is a Distinguished Fellow at Chatham House and the Paulson Institute, and a Distinguished Statesman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also a member of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization’s Group of Eminent Persons.