Institute of Politics

The student-led International Policy Program presents, The State of US-China Relations. It has been said that China is the US government’s top foreign policy priority in today’s international environment of “great power competition.” Both the Biden administration and former Trump administration have set their sights on addressing China as a “strategic competitor,” and have defined their distinct approaches to China through high-level documents like the US National Security Strategy and the Department of Defense’s National Defense Strategy. Moreover, there has been broad bipartisan Congressional support for taking a more direct stance toward China’s rise. What has led to this change in US behavior toward the People’s Republic of China (PRC)? How has US domestic politics shaped US foreign policy toward the PRC? Is the US utilizing all sources of national power to appropriately deal with the PRC’s rise? Has the US One-China policy shifted? How does economics fit into this equation? Should the US cut its losses with the Chinese and decouple to reduce its dependencies? Joining the student-led International Policy Program is Brookings Institution expert, Ryan Hass, to help guide the UChicago community through these critical questions. Ryan Hass is the Director of the John L. Thornton China Center and Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. Previously, he worked on the Obama administration’s National Security Council at the White House as Director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia from 2013 - 2017, where he was responsible for coordinating US foreign policy for East Asia. Before his NSC role, Hass served as a diplomat for the US State department and worked in US Embassy Beijing. He also served in Embassy Seoul and Embassy Ulaanbaatar. Additionally, he worked domestically in the State Department’s offices of Taiwan and Korean affairs. The event will be in-person in the IOP Living Room, with Ryan Hass joining us in-person on October 30th, 2023 at 11:00 AM. Vegetarian and non-vegetarian options will be provided.