On Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping will make his first trip to Europe since 2019. Xi’s visit comes on the heels of two U.S. diplomatic missions to China: Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen earlier in April. How should one read the recent surge in high-level engagement? Is Beijing trying to stabilize ties with the West? What impact might that have on China’s role in the war in Ukraine and its relations with Russia?
FP’s Ravi Agrawal will speak with Evan Medeiros, a former China director in the U.S. National Security Council who now teaches at Georgetown University.
Evan Medeiros explains how Chinese President Xi Jinping, on his trip to Europe, seeks to undermine the unity of both the European Union and NATO.
Medeiros explains why the U.S.-China competition is at such a sensitive time right now: Both countries are working to promote the image of a stable relationship even as the structural challenges between them grow.
As some allies of former U.S. President Donald Trump argue for a more aggressive strategy that could force regime change in China, Medeiros cautions that the United States would go that route alone. “None of [our partners or allies] are willing to run the risks or pay the costs associated with that highly confrontational approach.”
Medeiros argues that to compete with China in the long term, the United States needs to offer other countries trade and investment opportunities to incentivize partnership.
China has been “quite clear” that it wants to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, Medeiros says. However, he warns that the United States could expedite conflict if it “mismanages” the U.S.-Taiwan relationship.
Evan Medeiros
Chair of Asian studies, Georgetown University
Evan Medeiros is the Penner family chair in Asian studies at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. He also is a senior fellow for foreign policy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. He previously served as the National Security Council’s director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia and was special assistant to former President Barack Obama on U.S. policy toward the Asia-Pacific. Medeiros is the author of multiple books on China, including Cold Rivals: The New Era of US-China Strategic Competition.
Ravi Agrawal
Editor in chief, Foreign Policy
Ravi Agrawal is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy, the host of FP Live, and a regular world affairs analyst on TV and radio. Before joining FP in 2018, Agrawal worked at CNN for more than a decade in full-time roles spanning three continents, including as the network’s New Delhi bureau chief and correspondent. He is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy.
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