The United States closed the Chinese consulate in Houston last week, setting off a retaliatory closure of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, China. In an appearance on PBS Newshour, Susan Thornton observed that "closure of a consulate outside of wartime is an exceedingly rare move in diplomacy."
What caused Beijing to impose a national security law on Hong Kong? Ryan Hass argues that a confluence of six factors — from the upcoming Hong Kong Legislative Council elections to President Trump's posture of "unswerving hostility toward China" — drove the decision on timing.
China now touches virtually every region in the world. In the newest installment of the Global China project, Brookings scholars examine how China's increasing involvement is impacting the Middle East, the South Pacific, Latin America, and elsewhere.
Will China's debt bubble ever pop? Bloomberg Economics Chief Economist Tom Orlik joined David Dollar on the Dollar & Sense podcast to discuss China's buildup of debt and fears of eventual economic collapse.
Although Europe is getting tougher on China, it's nowhere close to the United States. Paul Gewirtz writes that the recent EU-China summit showed that European countries are "trying to advance their distinct interests, which means emphasizing cooperation and partnership with China along with vigorous competition and criticism."
What did the U.S. accomplish with its South China Sea legal statement?Robert D. Williams argues that it may not have been much if the United States is unwilling to back up its commitment to Southeast Asian countries with tangible new measures.
Global economic cooperation is in free fall. China could stop that. According to Peter Petri and Johns Hopkins SAIS professor Michael Plummer, as the United States retreats from multilateral economic cooperation, China can increasingly play an outsize role.
How does the rest of the world view the escalating U.S.-China rivalry?Bruce Jones sat down with five other Brookings scholars — Fiona Hill, Tanvi Madan, Amanda Sloat, Mireya Solís, and Constanze Stelzenmüller — to discuss how U.S.-China rivalry is unfolding in India, Japan, the United Kingdom, the European Union (with a focus on Germany), Russia, and Turkey.
In the news
Why did the U.S. order a Chinese consulate closed — and what does it mean for foreign policy? In the New York Times, Ryan Hass said that "Secretary Pompeo and other members of the administration appear to have broader goals. They want to reorient the U.S.-China relationship toward an all-encompassing systemic rivalry that cannot be reversed by the outcome of the upcoming U.S. election."
Xi Jinping is using a more aggressive foreign policy to secure legitimacy at home ahead of China's 2022 leadership contest. Cheng Li argued that China watchers should not underestimate Xi's popularity domestically in a Bloomberg Quint interview.
President Xi Jinping might be trying to stir hard-line sentiment among ordinary Chinese by cracking down on Hong Kong. "Taking strong action on Hong Kong stoked mainland Chinese nationalism at a time of declining economic growth and rising domestic frustrations over public health and safety," observed Ryan Hass in the Washington Post.
Where's the bottom for U.S.-China relations? "The power gap is closing, and the ideological gap is widening," said Rush Doshi in the New York Times. He added that China and the United States had entered a downward "ideological spiral" years in the making, and asked, "Where's the bottom?"
About the China Center
The John L. Thornton China Centerdevelops timely, independent analysis and policy recommendations to help U.S. and Chinese leaders address key long-term challenges, both in terms of U.S.-China relations and China's internal development.
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