NCUSCR Interviews National Committee on U.S.-China Relations

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was first discussed ten years ago. What has happened over the past ten years? Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, BRI’s current state and future trajectories are more confusing and controversial than ever. Do China’s leading coalitions still support BRI? Min Ye discusses the current status and future directions of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in conversation with Ka Zeng.
0:00 Introduction
2:20 Who are the BRI actors?
7:48 Global and domestic impact
14:39 Transparency and corruption
20:30 U.S.-China competition
30:14 Economy
32:24 Cooperation
About the speakers: https://ncuscr.org/events/chinas-belt-and-road
Follow Min Ye on Twitter: @beltbeyond
Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).

Taiwan is a major flashpoint amid escalating tensions in U.S.-China relations. Ryan Hass, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, explains U.S. policy on Taiwan and China’s forceful reactions to perceived changes in the status quo.
0:48 — One China Principle vs Policy
3:11 — What is strategic ambiguity?
6:05 — Pelosi's Taiwan visit—why does China care so much?
10:32 — Future of U.S.-China relations
About the speaker: https://ncuscr.org/events/taiwan-china-united-states
Follow Ryan Hass on Twitter: @ryanl_hass
Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).

Increasingly powerful, prosperous, and authoritarian, China under the leadership of Xi Jinping has become an increasingly intense competitor across the globe economically, technologically, diplomatically, militarily, and in seeking to influence people’s hearts and minds. But what does China ultimately want in the world?
In Daring to Struggle: China’s Global Ambitions Under Xi Jinping, Bates Gill explains the fundamental motivations driving the country’s dynamic, assertive, and risk-taking approach to the world under Xi Jinping. In an interview conducted on July 21, 2022, Bates Gill analyzes how the pursuit of six major goals – legitimacy, sovereignty, wealth, power, leadership, and ideas – shapes China’s foreign relationships in its Indo-Pacific neighborhood and beyond.
0:00 The book
2:51 Economic growth
8:48 Taiwan
14:23 Xinjiang
18:47 Ukraine
21:55 China as a military threat
26:07 Can diplomacy work?
29:44 People-to-people exchange
33:00 Xi Jinping's mission
About the speaker: https://ncuscr.org/events/daring-to-struggle
Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).

Find the link to Michael Swaine's report here: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/threat-inflation-chinese-military/
According to a recent report by Michael D. Swaine, framing the military challenge Beijing poses in alarmist, worst-case ways weakens the U.S. ability to determine the limits of Chinese threats. It also undermines voices within China that favor moderation, raises the danger of Sino-American crises and military conflict, and diverts U.S. resources away from desperately needed nonmilitary uses at home and abroad.
The United States cannot build its way out of the deepening military competition with China, nor develop a successful long-term China strategy based on inflated threats. It must accept the logic of balance over dominance in many areas, fashion credible strategies designed both to deter and reassure Beijing in both the regional and global arenas, and strengthen its capacities at home.
Michael Swaine discusses more effective approaches than threat inflation to facing China’s increasingly powerful military in an interview conducted on July 8, 2022.
About the speaker: https://ncuscr.org/events/threat-inflation-chinese-military
Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr)

What is Hong Kong? According to the British, a “barren rock” without meaningful history; to China, a part of Chinese soil from the beginning of time, finally returned to its rightful place in 1997. When protests erupted in 2019 and were met with escalating suppression, Louisa Lim, a journalist raised in Hong Kong who as an adult has covered the region for more than a decade, felt compelled to tell Hong Kong’s untold stories. In Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong, Dr. Lim combines history and memoir to explicate Hong Kong’s history, the present reality that Hong Kong is not “just another Chinese city,” and the future that may be unfolding.
In an interview conducted on June 27, 2022, Louisa Lim centers Hong Kongers as she discusses a diverse cast of characters including the memorable and mysterious King of Kowloon.
About the speaker: https://ncuscr.org/events/indelible-city-hong-kong

In China’s Economic Challenge: Unconventional Success, Albert Keidel examines the economic approaches responsible for China’s 40 years of rapid growth, suggesting how such strategies might be applied elsewhere. He discusses the government’s leadership role, success in poverty reduction, and international finance and trade experience. The book reviews why China’s success challenges the United States and the field of development economics. He describes how generous rural price and land-tenure reform in the 1980s caused a rural income boom that threatened urban subsidized livelihoods and underpinned consequent violence. China may face similar challenges moving forward, during the planned merger of the rural and urban work forces.
In an interview conducted on June 17, 2022, Albert Keidel analyzes the institutions and policies responsible for China’s successful development and possible future trajectory, examines the U.S.-China trade war, and considers the country’s economic prospects in light of COVID-19.