It was an eventful year in U.S.-China relations. From President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs in April to the APEC Summit in November, the Brookings China Center previewed, contextualized, and assessed the strategic implications of unfolding developments in the world. This final China Center Bulletin of 2025 looks back on some of our writing and analysis from the year.
We investigated Chinese elite leadership politics, from ongoing purges in the PLA to the Fourth Plenum's policy continuity. We delved into China's relations with its traditional partners—Russia and North Korea—and with other regional blocs, including Europe and Southeast Asia. The role of AI and energy in U.S.-China relations captured our attention. We welcomed Kyle Chan to the Center as a new fellow, where his research will focus on Chinese industrial policy and technology.
We have highlighted a few of the articles you have interacted with most below. Thank you for your engagement with our work, and we hope you have a happy new year.
Alongside other Brookings experts, Patricia Kim reflects that the new NSS maintains a familiar Indo-Pacific policy, but situates it within a redefinition for U.S. global leadership that elevates the Western Hemisphere, weakens alliance commitments, and concentrates authority in the presidency.
Ryan Hass and Phil Gordon contend in Foreign Affairs that concerns over Taiwan's future are understandable but overblown: Taiwan's democracy and civil society are robust, its economy is resilient, and it is making progress on defense reforms. Taipei still has cards to play in managing relations with Trump and hedging against Chinese coercion.
Jonathan Czin assesses that Beijing seeks to sideline the United States as it accrues power and influence, which could lead China to press for rollbacks in U.S. investment restrictions, tech controls, and security commitments.
In February, Brookings China Center scholars Ryan Hass and Patricia Kim hosted a fireside chat between Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party on Congress's priorities for bolstering America's position in its competition with China.
Following China's Fourth Plenum, Jonathan Czin and Allie Matthias discuss how the 15th Five-Year Plan represents policy continuity, confidence, and a sense of urgency to accomplish the party's goals. Czin and Matthias highlight how Beijing's projections of confidence contrast with the vast purges occurring throughout the top leadership.
Jonathan Czin and John Culver argue in Foreign Affairs that Xi's sweeping purges of the PLA signify his continued dominance over the military rather than its diminution. They conclude that Xi is expelling PLA members at all levels of the military to break the PLA’s insularity, reinforce Party loyalty, eradicate deep-rooted corruption, and focus on its force readiness.
In June, the Brookings China Center hosted a fireside chat with R. Nicholas Burns, former U.S. Ambassador to China (2021-2025) and former U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005), on what role China should play, if any, in a potential ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.
Patricia Kim contends in Foreign Affairs that China, North Korea, and Russia remain uneasy partners beneath their show of solidarity at Beijing's military parade. Each still has something to gain from the U.S., which is leverage that Washington can wield.
As part of Global China's "Lost in Translation" series, Kainan Gao and Margaret M. Pearson discuss how Chinese and Russian military parades offer an alternative history to the Western narrative of Allied victory in World War II.
As part of the Brookings Global China project, six Brookings scholars offer their perspectives on the complexities and choices shaping U.S.-EU-China triangular dynamics.
Welcoming Kyle Chan to the China Center. This October, Kyle Chan joined Brookings as a fellow. His research will concentrate on China technology issues and industrial policy. He writes a popular Substack called High Capacity.
In a collection of short essays, a multidisciplinary group of Brookings scholars forecast how AI will affect U.S.-China relations over the next five years. From nuclear safeguards to disinformation threats, ten experts explore how AI will shape new global norms, national security, domestic infrastructure, and public diplomacy.
The futures of energy and breakthrough technologies like AI are tightly interconnected in the U.S.-China relationship, both in political tensions and technical overlap, according to R. David Edelman. He argues that Washington must craft a clear strategy that recognizes this interplay by harnessing private investment, building a better grid for clean energy, and securing a range of technology standards.
The Brookings China Center and Tsinghua University's Center for International Security Studies (CISS) convened their biannual Track II Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence and National Security both in mid-November in Dubai and mid-February in Munich.
The John L. Thornton China Center develops timely, independent analysis and policy recommendations to address long-standing challenges related to U.S.-China relations and China's development.
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