March 4, 2024

Presidents Biden and Xi sit across from one another during a meeting.

Is the US-China relationship the most consequential relationship for America in the world?

Ryan Hass, Patricia M. Kim, and Emilie Kimball, co-leads of the Brookings Foreign Policy project: “Global China: Assessing China’s Growing Role in the World,” convened a group of leading experts—Graham Allison, Josh M. Cartin, Elizabeth Economy, and Susan Thornton—to engage in a written debate examining if the U.S.-China relationship is the most consequential relationship for America in the world.

US-China collaboration on HIV/AIDS

As part of the joint Brookings-CSIS project on Advancing Collaboration in an Era of Strategic Competition, social behavioral epidemiologist Dr. Jennifer Bouey explores collaborative public health efforts between the United States and China in combating HIV/AIDS from 2002 to 2018, an effort that produced notable benefits both globally and synergistically for the partner states.

Read on CSIS

China’s overseas police stations: An imminent security threat?

Diana Fu and Emily Dirks assess the global presence of China's Public Security Bureau's overseas police service stations. They assess the stations’ origins and operations, their links to transnational repression, the services they enact on behalf of Chinese law enforcement, and actions taken toward citizens abroad.

Mutually assured disruption: Globalization, security, and the dangers of decoupling

In an environment where critics of globalization and proponents of U.S.-China economic decoupling advocate policies that would harm the global economy and increase the likelihood of military conflict, Thomas Christensen investigates the national security benefits of U.S.-China economic engagement and the regional economic integration of East Asia.

Read on Project MUSE

More research and commentary

Building international support for Taiwan. Ryan Hass, Jude Blanchette, and Lily McElwee published a report with CSIS sharing insights from a task force of experts. The group discussed how Washington can build a strong coalition capable of meaningfully supporting the people of Taiwan and send a credible deterrence signal to Beijing's efforts to diplomatically isolate Taiwan and take it by force.

Telling the complex China story. In a book review for Contexts Magazine, Yingyi Ma examines two titles which focus on the role of journalists and media in Chinese society: "The Contentious Public Sphere" and "The Currency of Truth."

Why Beijing won't fight the Houthis. In a piece for The Wire China, Yun Sun explores the geopolitical and economic factors that guide China's approach toward attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Houthis. The article examines key factors at play, including Israel's war against Hamas and great-power competition with the United States.

Beijing's perspective on the war in Ukraine. Cheng Li is interviewed by DW News at the Munich Security Conference about China's positioning on Ukraine's territorial sovereignty amidst Russia's invasion of Ukraine and how it factors into Beijing's approach to the U.S. and Taiwan.

About the China Center

The John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings develops timely, independent analysis and policy recommendations to address long-standing challenges related to U.S.-China relations and China’s internal development.