March 31, 2021

China is not 10 feet tall

"The more the United States can restore confidence that it is the country best prepared in the world to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, the better it will be able to focus attention where it matters most: not on slowing China down but on strengthening itself." In this Foreign Affairs article, Ryan Hass outlines a clear-eyed approach for U.S. policymakers to leverage America's strengths and set a course for effectively competing with China.

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10 reasons the US and China should cooperate now to stop the pandemic

Cheng Li and Ryan McElveen offer recommendations for U.S.-China efforts to combat COVID-19 and assert that the task of bringing the pandemic under control can only be accomplished through global coordination, which requires the active engagement of the two largest economies in the world. 

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In a separate piece, Cheng Li and Ma Senqi address how American and Chinese officials can take inspiration from medical cooperation by doctors and scientists of both countries on COVID-19.

Around the halls: Experts react to high-level meetings between American and Asian officials

Brookings experts David Dollar, Michael O'Hanlon, and Mireya Solís weigh in on the high-level meetings between American and Chinese officials in Anchorage. They consider the key takeaways from the talks, as well as the implications of the summit for future U.S.-China discussions.

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More research and commentary

Chinese data privacy laws. Jamie Horsley explains how China's draft of its first Personal Protection Law sets limits on government data handling. Horsley also highlights the difficult task facing Beijing to balance privacy and personal information protection against broad cybersecurity and national security priorities.

U.S.-China military relations. "A Sino-U.S. commitment to applying clear mutual safety procedures to all sea forces would be a small step toward building the confidence needed to address larger challenges such as the deployment of new capabilities in military robotics and artificial-intelligence-enabled vessels and weapons systems," writes Robert Williams.

In the news

Possible Biden-Xi meeting at climate change summit? Cheng Li spoke to MarketPlace about how the Biden administration is trying to find areas where it can cooperate with China, saying "It's not a secret that Biden will invite world leaders for the climate summit next month," and that "there's a possibility that both [President Xi and President Biden] will hold a side meeting." 

How does the U.S.-China competition affect global semi-conductor supply chains? David Dollar told the Financial Times that "it is unlikely that political pressure will force widespread changes," adding that "you always have a tension between politics and economics and I suspect in most cases economics will win out. There are powerful reasons why these supply chains have developed."

Takeaways from China's Annual Parliament Session? NPR asked Diana Fu how changes to Hong Kong's election laws and rhetoric from China's Foreign Ministry reflects Beijing's foreign policy stance. "What you're seeing in Hong Kong is basically electoral reform as a euphemism for electoral control," Fu says.

Watch recent webinars

U.S.-China collaboration on COVID-19 prevention and treatment. At the beginning of the month, the Brookings China Center and Tsinghua University provided a forum for leading public health and medical experts in America and China to explore COVID-19 collaboration across medical and research cooperation, vaccine development and distribution, and international protocols for global travel and trade.

Navigating Canada-U.S.-China trilateral relations. On March 19, the Brookings China Center and the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy co-hosted a webinar to discuss how the United States and Canada can find more effective joint efforts to open up greater diplomatic space and compete with China while also preserving the benefits of cross-Pacific relations. 

Adapting America's China strategy. Last week, the Brookings China Center held a discussion on "Stronger," a new book by Ryan Hass which examines the state of the U.S.-China relationship and charts a new path for America focusing on its existing advantages.

For more on the book, listen to a conversation between Ryan Hass and Kaiser Kuo on the Sinica Podcast.

About the China Center