Overreach and Overreaction with Dr. Susan Shirk

June 29, 2023

The year 2023 has thus far been a turbulent one for the U.S.-China relationship. An already deeply strained relationship has been rocked further by a number of significant events. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently concluded a visit to Beijing with the stated purpose of re-establishing and reinvigorating high-level contact between the two governments stemming the hemorrhaging in the bilateral relationship.  What are the prospects for the U.S.-China relationship for the remainder of 2023 and beyond? Is a materially, or even incrementally, improved relationship between the two countries possible in the foreseeable future?

Joining host David Firestein is Dr. Susan Shirk, a research professor and founding chair of the 21st Century China Center at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California San Diego and author of Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise.

From 1997 to 2000, Dr. Shirk served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia. She is also the author of China: Fragile Superpower; The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China.

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