This podcast is the audio recording of a panel discussion between experts from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy on May 28, 2014. The discussion focused on the state of U.S.-China relations, one year after the U.S.-China Summit at the Sunnylands Estate. 

Highlighting four years of partnership between the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Tsinghua University’s Department of International Relations, Yan Xuetong and Sun Xuefeng, both professors at Tsinghua University and Carnegie–Tsinghua scholars, joined Carnegie–Tsinghua’s Paul Haenle and Carnegie’s Yukon Huang to discuss a range of bilateral and global issues occupying the U.S.-China agenda, from cyber security to maritime cooperation. Carnegie’s George Perkovich moderated.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Asia in April 2014 underscored the importance of the U.S.-China relationship and the challenge of managing it in the context of increasing interdependence, but also tension and mistrust. Experts expressed concerns about the rising tensions in the bilateral relationship and negative coverage of the relationship in the mainstream media. Yan stated that trust is not necessary in order for the two countries to enhance cooperation and advance bilateral relations. But Haenle said that if the United States and China could find common global challenges on which to cooperate and make progress, they could build trust while making a positive contribution to the global community. If successful, this could help shift public perceptions of the U.S.-China relationship to one that can be a force for good on the international stage.

Yan Xuetong

Yan Xuetong is dean of Tsinghua University’s Institute of Modern International Relations and president of the Carnegie–Tsinghua Management Board.

Sun Xuefeng

Sun Xuefeng is a resident scholar at the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy and an expert on the rise of great powers and China’s foreign policy.

Yukon Huang

Yukon Huang is a senior associate in the Carnegie Asia Program, where his research focuses on China’s economic development and its impact on Asia and the global economy.

George Perkovich

George Perkovich is vice president for studies and former director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Paul Haenle

Paul Haenle is the director of the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center based at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.