Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues

At Georgetown University, it’s not uncommon that I find myself in conversation about U.S.-China great power competition, whether that be during discussion in a class, over a meal in the dining hall, or just casually chatting with friends in the dorms. Granted, that’s the kind of thing you’d expect for students in the School of Foreign Service, whose long-time mission has been to train this country’s next generation of diplomats. But what I find conspicuously and increasingly absent from these conversations is the contemplation of the very real effects that people on both sides of the geopolitical chasm experience. How alienated do Chinese Americans feel when the president of the United States accuses them of spreading “kung flu”? What long-term consequences will our antagonization of Chinese people as a whole, even though many vehemently disagree with the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian policies, have on them and us? And how disparaging is it for patriotic Asian-American public servants to be looked on suspiciously simply because of their race?

I’m a big believer in people over geopolitics. Participating in the U.S.-China Student Dialogue, hosted by the Georgetown University Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues, has only reinforced this conviction. Since joining the 2024-2025 cohort last fall, I’ve only found my faith in people-to-people exchange grow exponentially: so far, we’ve already met with our counterparts at Peking University several times, and each conversation has yielded new understanding for folks on both sides. For example, we compared the rule of law in the United States with the rule by party in China. Our Peking University peers argued that their system of governance enabled far more streamlined infrastructure construction, while we touted the American system’s recognition of diverse perspectives, perhaps slowing down policy implementation in certain cases but allowing everyone’s voices to be accounted for and listened to throughout the process. I’m grateful for all the candor from Georgetown and Peking participants in the dialogues so far—it is extremely refreshing to hear on the ground perspectives without people spinning narratives and using deliberately polarizing rhetoric.

Looking ahead at the next few months, I could not be more excited for our in-person visits to Beijing and Shanghai over spring break. Whenever I’ve brought up the idea of visiting China, I’ve noticed a lot of my friends at Georgetown expressing fears around being arbitrarily detained or surreptitiously surveilled as soon as they set foot in China. While some of these concerns are valid, it’s an excessively pessimistic view of the situation on the ground: there is much that we’re losing out on right now with the dearth of people-to-people exchange. We talk past each other, even on issues (like climate change) where there is meaningful space for collaboration, and as a result, miss out on the good ideas, knowledge, and perspectives that people on both sides have. I have high hopes for the trip. At minimum, I’m optimistic that my peers and I will be able to step out of our regular geopolitical foreign policy mindsets. Maybe we’ll even forge some new friendships that help us see the human side of U.S.-China competition, and continue to keep that in mind, no matter where the relationship between the two countries heads in the future.

Sophia Lu (SFS'26) is a junior at Georgetown University studying Science, Technology, International Affairs with minors in Film & Media Studies and Philosophy.