Introducing Season Two: Taking Stock of a Global China
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This season of the U.S.-China Nexus looks at China’s expanding global footprint and the country’s outlook vis-à-vis different parts of the world.
Join host Eleanor M. Albert as the show’s guests unpack China’s regional relations from Asia to Africa and the Gulf to the Americas.
Intro
Welcome to season two of the U.S.-China Nexus: Taking Stock of a Global China.
China is a superpower anew and its footprint is ever-expanding. But are all regions equal in China’s eyes? The country wields influence across a wide range of arenas from economics and development to soft power and beyond.
This season, each episode features a conversation with experts who unpack China’s relations with different parts of the world, from Asia to Africa and the Gulf to the Americas.
In this teaser, you will hear excerpts from season two’s first episode, a conversation with three experts on China’s regional role in Northeast Asia: Ankit Panda, Darcie Draudt, and Ayumi Teraoka.
Tune in in two weeks for the launch of season two of the US-China Nexus!
Conversation
Eleanor M. Albert: Let's dive right in. China's ties to Northeast Asia are really deeply rooted in history and at the same time can also be quite fluid. So how is China's regional presence viewed in each of your kind of countries of expertise from North Korea, South Korea, to Japan?
Ankit Panda: I like to start every conversation I have about China and North Korea with really hitting the point that I think is a pervasive source of misunderstanding in the American foreign policy discourse about China and North Korea, which is that North Korea is in China's pocket, is an absolutely obedient Chinese proxy. None of that is true. It's really never been true. China-North Korea relations are in a much better place now than they were during the first few years of Kim Jong-un's reign. But that took a while. I think there's a begrudging recognition that China continues to be a bulwark of stability for the North Korean regime. The economic relationship is one I think of true dependency.
Darcie Draudt: I like to start in how the United States also misperceives the China-South Korea relationship. I think there's this narrative of South Korea having essentially a zero-sum relationship with both Washington and Beijing, that somehow if it's moving closer to Beijing, it's moving further away from Washington. In a certain sense, this is kind of like a twentieth century Cold War mindset. If you look at public opinion data over the past 10 years, there has been a big shift in how the South Korean public, not to mention policy elites are seeing Beijing. There is an increasing weariness about what is the stability, even in the economic relationship.
Ayumi Teraoka: The type of relationship Japan builds with China also shapes what it means with Japan to be a part of Asia and how it identifies itself as a member of Asia. Japan is now struggling how to maintain this goldilocks distance with Chinese and how to shape Chinese rise in Chinese power.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Georgetown University.
Outro
The U.S.-China Nexus is created, produced, and edited by me, Eleanor M. Albert. Our music is from Universal Production Music. Special thanks to Shimeng Tong, Tuoya Wulan, and Amy Vander Vliet. For more initiative programming, videos, and links to events, visit our website at uschinadialogue.georgetown.edu. And don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.