We are delighted to invite you to this roundtable featuring experts from the Lau China Institute and School of Security Studies at King's College London. They will explore the evolution of US-China relations since Nixon's visit to China in 1972, and assess future trends in relations between the two powers. 

On 21st February 1972, US President Richard Nixon touched down in the People’s Republic of China. After more than two decades of isolation, the ‘week that changed the world’ was a crucial moment in geopolitics, and a precursor to normalisation of relations between the US and China a few years later.

Over the past fifty years since that visit, the US and China have grappled with a great power struggle, as China’s economic and geopolitical ascendency has challenged the US' global dominance.

In the past few years, US-China relations have been particularly strained with the so-called ‘trade war’ escalating under former President Trump. Despite hopes for better days under the Biden Administration, tensions have continued, with the two countries clashing on COVID-19, allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics and several other irritants.

At the same time, the two great powers appear to have entered a new normal characterised by heightened tensions in addition to economic interdependence in most sectors. This puzzling and concerning scenario starkly contrasts with the atmosphere fifty years ago, which was one of hope and anticipation as President Nixon and Chairman Mao achieved a détente and set the stage for a new era of US-China relations.

Join us for this exclusive roundtable discussion to reflect on the US-China relationship then and now, and hear from our experts on how the relationship is likely to unfold in the years ahead.

Opening Remarks:

• Gesine Weber, PhD Candidate, Defence Studies Department
• Hannah Bretherton, Impact and Engagement Manager, Lau China Institute

Chair:

• Vincent Ni, China Affairs Correspondent at The Guardian

Speakers:

• Professor Kerry Brown, Director of the Lau China Institute
• Dr Nicola Leveringhaus, Senior Lecturer, Department of War Studies
• James Ridley-Jones, PhD Candidate, Defence Studies Department
• Angus Reilly, Leverhulme Doctoral Fellow, Department of War Studies
• Li Lin, PhD Candidate, Department of War Studies 

Closing Remarks:

• Dr Zeno Leoni, Teaching Fellow, Defence Studies Department
• Anna Tan, PhD Candidate, Lau China Institute

Vincent Ni is currently the China Affairs correspondent for The Guardian in London, covering the world's most populous nation and its evolving place in Asia and in the world.

Prior to the Guardian, Vincent was a Senior Journalist at the BBC between April 2014 and April 2021. Whilst at the BBC, he also launched BBC Asia Brief, an internal forum that broadens conversations about East and Southeast Asia and their relationship with the rest of the world for BBC editors and reporters. His work has appeared on the BBC’s flagship programs such as Newshour, Dateline London, and From Our Own Correspondent. Vincent is a graduate of Oxford University. In 2018, he was selected as one of the 16 Yale World Fellows. In June 2021, he presented the hour-long BBC world service radio documentary When Kisssinger went to China. In 2019, he launched the Asia Matters podcast.

Professor Kerry Brown is Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College, London. He is an Associate of the Asia Pacific Programme at Chatham House, London, an adjunct of the Australia New Zealand School of Government in Melbourne, and the co-editor of the Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, run from the German Institute for Global Affairs in Hamburg. He is President-Elect of the Kent Archaeological Society and an Affiliate of the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at Cambridge University.

Dr Nicola Leveringhaus specialises in the International Relations of Asia, with a focus on China and the security of that region, especially as it relates to nuclear weapons. In September 2016 she joined the Department of War Studies from Sheffield University, where she was a Lecturer in International Politics. Dr Leveringhaus was previously a Junior Research Fellow (2012), a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2012-15) and Stipendiary Lecturer in International Relations (2014-15) at the University of Oxford. Nicola completed her DPhil at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, under the supervision of Professor Rosemary Foot. Her thesis examined China’s engagement with global nuclear order since 1949.

James Ridley-Jones is a doctoral candidate studying Central Asia Geopolitics at King's College London. His research and analysis includes the Belt and Road Initiative, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation and USA regional engagement, as well as regional travel across Central Asia for an on-the-ground perspective of current events.

Angus Reilly is a Leverhulme Fellow and PhD Student with the Centre for Grand Strategy. His PhD thesis is a study of global capitalism and US foreign policy in the 1980s. The thesis chronicles how American policymakers and private actors grappled with the shifting global environment and the actions that facilitated the political economy of the post-Cold War unipolar world. Prior to attending KCL, Angus graduated with a first-class degree in Government and History from the London School of Economics, where he won the James Joll Prize. Concurrent to his PhD thesis, Angus is writing a biography of the British politician David Owen, provisionally titled A Certain Idea of Britain, and working on a project about Henry Kissinger’s experiences in World War II.

Li Lin is a fully funded doctoral researcher at the Department of War Studies. Li Lin did her BA in Law at School of International Studies, Peking University in Beijing; MA in Geopolitics, Territory and Security at Department of Geography, King's College London and MA in History of War, Department of War Studies. She has previously worked as Teaching Assistant for the School of International Studies; a Research Assistant for the Institute of International and Strategic Studies of Peking University, and as Program Manager for Peking University Office of International Affairs. She is Observer of Peking University Youth Think Tank since 2018. She is now a Senior Editor at Strife (an academic journal based in War Studies at King's).