Please Note: Due to concerns related to the Coronavirus, Public Affairs Week has been cancelled.

When China entered the WTO in 2001, many policymakers in the United States expected a rising middle-class and participation in the global trade regime to make the PRC a progressively more democratic and liberal nation. But China has developed differently. The Party is resurgent under Xi Jinping, and using the assets of private industry as well as government to extend state control. By pressing its claims in the South China Sea and offering other nations the capacity to develop trading infrastructure rapidly through its Belt-Road Initiative, China is asserting its influence in ways that directly challenge the United States and its presence as a military and trading power in the Pacific.

China’s rapid technological development gives it unprecedented capacity to compete directly with US industry and security capabilities and allows it to present alternative development platforms to the rest of the world. What should US-China relations look like in an era of nationalism and, by some measures, retreat from multilateral commitments? This evening’s speakers will assess the state of US-Chinese relations, the role technology plays in those relations, and what the next ten years might look like as China takes its place as the world’s largest economy.