Executive Roundtable on The Current State and the Future Direction of U.S.-China Relations with Jessica Chen Weiss

An increasingly fraught U.S.-China relationship has seen mixed developments lately. Early in May, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and China’s highest-ranking diplomat Wang Yi held a “candid” and “constructive” meeting in Vienna, the highest-level U.S.-China in-person talks since November 2022. At the recently concluded G7 Summit, President Biden said that he expects the tensions between U.S. and China to thaw “very shortly.” Afterwards, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and USTR Katherine Tai met with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao to discuss trade concerns.

All these are constructive steps towards repairing the bi-lateral relationship. However, other developments, including the U.S. advance of trade talks with Taiwan, China’s new counter-espionage law in response to a growing list of trade and investment restrictions on Chinese companies, and lack of senior-level bilateral military communications, all point to an uncertain and murky U.S.-China relationship forward. President Biden has also emphasized the need for the U.S. to “de-risk” and “diversify” its economy away from China.

How do we interpret these mixed developments between the U.S. and China? What direction can we expect the relationship to progress in the coming years?

Join us in Seattle on Thursday, July 6 at 11:00 a.m. for a roundtable discussion with Jessica Chen Weiss, the Michael J. Zak Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies at Cornell University and a non-resident fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. In addition to discussing the current state and the future direction of U.S.-China relations, Prof. Weiss will also share with us her current book research on how China’s domestic politics and regime insecurity shape its foreign policy. Andrew Batson, Director of China Research at Gavekal, will lead the moderated Q&A session.

This is an in-person, private, off-the-record event. There will be informal networking sessions over snacks and coffee/tea before and after the discussion.

This Executive Roundtable Program is a special benefit for our Innovator, Groundbreaker, Advisory Council, and Board Members. Learn more and become a member today: https://asiasociety.org/northern-california/join-our-community. 

Agenda

• 11:00 a.m.       Event Registration and Networking
• 11:15 a.m.       Opening remarks and Keynote by Jessica Chen Weiss
• 11:45 a.m.       Moderated Q&A Discussion led by Andrew Batson\
• 12:05 p.m.       Audience Q&A
• 12:30 p.m.       Networking
• 1:00 p.m.         Event Concludes 

SPEAKERS BIOS

Jessica Chen Weiss is Senior Fellow in Chinese Politics, Foreign Policy, and National Security at Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. She is also the Michael J. Zak Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies in the Department of Government at Cornell University. From August 2021 to July 2022, she served as senior advisor to the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department on a Council on Foreign Relations Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars (IAF-TIRS).

Weiss is the author of Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China’s Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 2014). Her research appears in International Organization, China Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Security Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, and Review of International Political Economy, as well as in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Quarterly. Weiss was previously an assistant professor at Yale University and founded FACES, the Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford University. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, she received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego.

Andrew Batson is the director of China research for Gavekal. He manages the Dragonomics research team in Beijing, writes and comments on the Chinese economy, and speaks regularly to business and academic audiences. Andrew has been writing about China since 1998.

Before joining Gavekal in 2011, he was an award-winning reporter for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires in Beijing and Hong Kong. Andrew was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and educated at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Andrew also blogs about China, economics and other topics at andrewbatson.com.