Monday, March 25 at 2:00 pm
Unresolved: The Techonomic Cold War With China
President Xi Jinping has made it clear: When it comes to big data, advanced weaponry, and other innovations in tech and AI, China has plans to surpass the United States as the world’s next techonomic superpower. But between the trade war with the U.S., the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, and an array of domestic challenges, are China’s goals outpacing its capacity? Or is China building and investing in strategic partnerships that will push the country toward global dominance?
Staged in our “Unresolved” format, this debate brings together five foreign policy luminaries to tackle pressing questions, including: Will the next Silicon Valley be in China? Is the Belt and Road Initiative a trillion-dollar blunder? And will the U.S. and China both lose the trade war?
The Debaters:
Ian Bremmer
Founder and President, Eurasia Group
Ian Bremmer is the president and founder of Eurasia Group, the leading global political risk research and consulting firm, and president of GZERO Media. He is the foreign affairs columnist and editor-at-large at Time magazine, where he writes about China, U.S. foreign policy, and geopolitics. Dubbed a “rising guru” in the field of political risk by the Economist, he is the author of the New York Times best-seller, “Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism,” which explores the consequences of globalism.
Michèle Flournoy
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, WestExec & Fmr. U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy
Michèle Flournoy is the co-founder and managing partner of WestExec, a strategic advisory firm offering unique geopolitical expertise, and the co-founder and former CEO of the Center for a New American Security. Previously, she served as the undersecretary of defense for policy under President Obama. She was a Pentagon policy chief and the principal adviser to the Secretary of Defense in the formulation of national security and defense policy, oversight of military plans and operations, and in National Security Council deliberations. Flournoy serves on the CNAS board of directors.
Yasheng Huang
Professor, MIT & Author, "Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics"
Yasheng Huang is a professor of political economy and international management at MIT, where he holds the International Program Professorship in Chinese Economy and Business in the Sloan School of Management. He is the author of several books in English and Chinese, including “Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics," which was named an Economist book of the year. Huang also holds special professorship appointments at Fudan University and Hunan University and fellowships at Tsinghua University and the World Economic Forum. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank and OECD.
Parag Khanna
Founder & Managing Partner, FutureMap
Parag Khanna is a leading global strategy adviser and the founder and managing partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario-based strategic advisory firm. A best-selling author, his most recent book is “The Future is Asian: Commerce, Conflict & Culture in the 21st Century.” Khanna was previously a senior research fellow in the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the National University of Singapore. He has been a fellow at the Brookings Institution and New America, an adviser to the U.S. National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2030 program, and a senior geopolitical adviser to U.S. Special Operations Forces.
Susan Thornton
Senior Fellow, Yale University Paul Tsai China Center & Fmr. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Susan Thornton is a distinguished senior diplomat with extensive experience in Eurasia and East Asia and is currently a senior fellow and research scholar at the Yale University Paul Tsai China Center. Until July 2018, she was acting assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State under President Trump, where she led East Asia policymaking. Thornton was the architect of the diplomatic pressure campaign on the North Korean regime, structured the administration’s initial approach to China, and developed the administration’s trademark Indo-Pacific Strategy.
To listen to the audio of “Unresolved: The Techonomic Cold War With China” on Intelligence Squared online, please click HERE.