June 30, 2020 | Foreign Podicy

Pivoting Toward China

About

Episode 59

In 1972, Nixon went to China, where he met with Communist leader Mao Zedong.

Thanks to that bold diplomatic initiative, the United States and the People’s Republic learned to peacefully co-exist, living happily ever after.

Well, not exactly.

What Nixon called “the week that changed the world” helped China become wealthier and more powerful, but Beijing did not become America’s strategic partner — or a reliable stakeholder — in what we like to think of as the liberal, international, rules-based order.

To discuss what China’s rulers have been doing, are doing, and intend to do, host Cliff May is joined by two scholars new to FDD.

Nathan Picarsic, a senior fellow at FDD, studies Beijing’s military-civil fusion strategy, and its competitive approach to geopolitics.

Emily de La Bruyère, also a senior fellow, has pioneered novel data collection and analysis tools tailored to Beijing’s strategic and institutional structures. She uses primary-source, Chinese-language materials to provide insight on geopolitical, technological, and economic change.

Former President Richard Nixon with then-Premier Chou En-lai (left) and then-Shanghai Communist Party leader Chang Chun-chiao in February 1972 during his official visit to Beijing, China. (Getty Images)

Issues:

China Cyber Cyber-Enabled Economic Warfare Military and Political Power Sanctions and Illicit Finance U.S. Defense Policy and Strategy