John Pomfret | The Biden Administration's Approach to China

<p><strong>Topics Discussed and Key Points:</strong></p><p>●      Where the recent shift in perception of China’s global power originated</p><p>●      The future of U.S.-China relations as China increases its manufacturing capabilities</p><p>●      How the Biden administration’s attitude toward China compares to that of Trump’s</p><p>●      How economically-tied the U.S. and China currently are</p><p>●      What Biden’s return to multilateral institutions (i.e. WHO) means for U.S.-China relations</p><p>●      Ways in which China is trying to surpass the U.S. as a world power</p><p>●      How the rest of the world views China today</p><p>●      What many in the West do not understand about China’s internal challenges</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Episode Summary:</strong></p><p>Today on The Negotiation, we speak with John Pomfret, foreign correspondent and contributor to the Washington Post. He is the author of <em>The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China from 1776 to the Present </em>(2016).</p><p>Xi Jinping’s rise to power in 2013 was the beginning of a new phase in China’s evolution as a nation. Up until that point, the CCP believed that “China was becoming increasingly infected by ideas from the West.” Xi Jinping galvanized the party against Western thinking, cracking down against dissidents and human rights lawyers. He then accelerated a relatively aggressive foreign policy against the rest of the world, but specifically within China’s neighborhood in terms of the South China Sea, pushing back against Japan, India, and others in the region.</p><p>China’s first push to decouple from the West also came with the announcement of the ten-year “Made in China 2025” plan. It is another aggressive plan to bolster the nation’s own sovereignty by severing its alliances with Western technology companies that it has heavily relied on in the past.</p><p>The failure of America and Western Europe to effectively deal with certain problems in today’s world, particularly with regard to C