Heading to America to bridge the gap in US-China relations
Before boarding my flight to Boston late last month, I spent the better part of three days doing something I never imagined I would do in more than 30 years of covering China: scrubbing my phone. Old emails, screenshots, WeChat threads that might be read the wrong way, anything that could be misconstrued in an airport interview room – all deleted, just in case. I was not being paranoid. I was…
The correspondent headed to Boston for a one-year appointment as a senior visiting scholar at the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia at Harvard Kennedy School. His purpose is to interview American thought leaders across the political spectrum to discuss the future of the US-China relationship and the likelihood of conflict.
The relationship between the US and China began to deteriorate in 2018 when the Trump administration launched its trade war. However, grievances had been building up for decades across various sectors such as government, industry, trade, academia, science, and technology. The escalation was due to mutual anxieties – in Washington, the erosion of American primacy and superpower status, and in Beijing, concerns about America's unwillingness to accept China's rise, through trade measures and technology controls.
Despite these tensions, the correspondent is optimistic about the potential for cooperation on global challenges, engagement, and regulation. Topics include climate change, future pandemics, law enforcement cooperation, and artificial intelligence, space, and other emerging technologies. The correspondent plans to explore these topics during his year-long appointment and beyond, aiming to find common ground and cooperation between the two nations.
Written by urgent.news from Reuters Business via SCMP's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
