By Ava Burchell, Contributing Writer
On Thursday, Feb. 3, The Eisenhower Institute Undergraduate Fellows hosted two distinguished experts, Ambassador J. Stapleton “Stape” Roy, and Dr. Bonny Lin. Ambassador Roy and Dr. Lin explained how the relationship between the United States and China became what it is today.
Roy was born and raised in China, served as a Career Ambassador to East Asia and the Soviet Union for 45 years, and is now the Founding Director Emeritus of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States. Lin is the Director of the China Power Project and Senior Fellow for Asian Security at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS).
Roy described the United States’ current perspective on China when he said, “Once again, we lacked a clear vision on how to deal with China. We have lost confidence in our ability to manage our relations with arising great powers in ways that produce a net positive outcome. We are fretting over our erosion of our air and naval dominance in the western Pacific and the growing realization that a multipolar world is replacing the unipolar one in which we enjoyed the preeminent position.”
Lin explained how China’s aggression towards U.S. allies creates great tension. She also spoke on how Biden’s Three C’s (cooperation, competition, and confrontation) are imbalanced, with an emphasis on economic competition and a loss of reasons to collaborate, like the downfall of the Soviet Union.
Lin detailed how the United States forgets about China’s abilities when creating foreign policy. She said, “What I don’t see in these discussions is an appreciation that China will retaliate and with growing Chinese capabilities, China has more ways to impose pain on the United States and our allies and partners.”
The two panelists explained how events from the Cold War up until today have impacted the policy choices and the government’s sentiments when dealing with China. An increasing number of specialists on China are pouring into D.C. because no matter what happens in the future, China will play a large part in it, according to the panelists.
During the latter portion of the presentation, the experts answered questions from students in attendance.
