September 17, 2024 – In this Oxford Debate co-organized by the Asia Society Policy Institute and Asia Society Switzerland, participants debate the motion “The next U.S. administration must reassure China, not just deter it“. Arguing in favor of the motion are Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center; and Asia Society Policy Institute's Rorry Daniels. Arguing against the motion are Asia Society TOY Senior Fellow James Crabtree and Jason Hsu, former Taiwanese legislator and Mason fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. Nico Luchsinger, executive director at Asia Society Switzerland, moderates the debate. (54 min., 44 sec.)

Watch the video of the full debate above or listen to all arguments in this episode of our STATE OF ASIA podcast.

About Oxford Debates

The Oxford Debates at Asia Society Switzerland are a format to address 'big' questions that have no one answer or solution but are inviting many conflicting views. Four renowned experts in the field form teams of two, one team arguing for the motion, the other against it.

The Oxford-style format is broken down into four sections: opening remarks, rebuttals, a moderated question-and-answer session, and closing remarks. Before and after the debate the audience is polled whether they agree with the motion or not. The voting breakdown is not shared publicly until the end of the debate. The greater percentage change between the first and second votes determines the debate's winning team.

After the debate, there is a 15-minute debriefing during which the speakers reflect on the arguments and discussion.

Disclaimer: Positions presented in the debate do not necessarily represent the speakers' views

Motion: The next U.S. administration must reassure China, not just deter it

Arguing in favor of the motion: 

Rorry Daniels is the Managing Director of Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), where she leads and oversees strategy and operations for ASPI's projects on security, climate change and trade throughout Asia. She is also a Senior Fellow with ASPI's Center for China Analysis. She was previously with the National Committee on American Foreign Policy where she managed the organization's Track II and research portfolio on Asia security issues, with a particular focus on cross-Taiwan Strait relations, U.S.-China relations, and the North Korean nuclear program. Her most recent research project audited the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue to evaluate its process and outcomes.

She regularly writes and provides analysis for major media outlets and newsletters on security issues in the U.S. and the Asia Pacific. She is a 2022 Mansfield-Luce scholar, a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the National Committee on North Korea, a Pacific Forum Young Leader, as well as a Korea Society Kim Koo Foundation Fellow (2015 cohort). She earned her M.S. in International Relations at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, where she focused her studies on East and South Asia. She is proficient in Mandarin and holds a B.A. in Media Studies from Emerson College.

Yun Sun is a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the East Asia Program and Director of the China Program at the Stimson Center. Her expertise is in Chinese foreign policy, U.S.-China relations and China's relations with neighboring countries and authoritarian regimes.

From 2011 to early 2014, she was a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, jointly appointed by the Foreign Policy Program and the Global Development Program, where she focused on Chinese national security decision-making processes and China-Africa relations. From 2008 to 2011, Yun was the China Analyst for the International Crisis Group based in Beijing, specializing on China's foreign policy towards conflict countries and the developing world. Prior to ICG, she worked on U.S.-Asia relations in Washington, DC for five years. Yun earned her master's degree in international policy and practice from George Washington University, as well as an MA in Asia Pacific studies and a BA in international relations from Foreign Affairs College in Beijing.

Arguing against of the motion: 

James Crabtree is a distinguished analyst with long-standing experience and a vast range of high-level contacts in the region. His book The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age, was named an Amazon book of the year and short-listed as FT / McKinsey business book of the year. He is TOY Senior Fellow at Asia Society Switzerland and Asia Society Policy Institute, as well as a distinguished visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He was previously the Singapore-based Executive Director of the Institute of International Strategic Studies (IISS) in Asia, where he led the organisation of the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit, the region's most important annual meeting of security and defence leaders. He was also an Associate Professor in Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School, Asia's leading school of public policy.

James spent ten years as a journalist and foreign correspondent, notably for the Financial Times, where he was both Mumbai Bureau Chief and Comment Editor. He is currently a columnist for Foreign Policy, and writes for publications ranging from the FT and Straits Times to The New York Times, The Guardian and Wired. He previously worked as a senior advisor in the UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, under Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. He has worked for various think tanks in London and Washington DC, and spent several years living in America, initially as a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Jason Hsu is a senior advisor on policy and international partnerships at Liquid AI. In this role, he focuses on shaping the policy and regulation directions of artificial intelligence safety and ethics. From 2016 to 2020, Hsu served as legislator-at-large in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan (the national parliament) where he focused on defense, technology, trade, and foreign policy. He is an Edward Mason Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He was also a visiting scholar at the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School where he led a research team in designing a war game on a Taiwan Strait blockade contingency.

Hsu has lectured widely at colleges and universities, including the University of Toronto, University of California San Diego, IE University, the US Naval War College, Yale University, the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, University of California Berkeley, and Stanford University. Hsu was a recipient of the Eisenhower Fellowship in 2022 and was a Draper Hills Summer Fellow at Stanford University's Center for Democracy Development and Rule of Law. He was a fellow of the US State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program in 2019. Hsu received an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a BA from National Chengchi University.