“There isn’t a clear message from the U. S., or the rest of us saying, ‘Here is an economic proposition. Here is why we think that working with us is going to be good for you in the long term. And here is what flows from that,’” she said. “Like who is a friend, right? Why are they a friend? What are the benefits of being a friend? What are the risks of not being a friend? “
The discussion also veered into larger geopolitical issues — mainly Taiwan and the war in Ukraine. Rana Mitter, ST Lee chair in U.S.-Asia Relations, Harvard Kennedy School, and a British historian specializing in China, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine cannot be compared to China’s ambitions for Taiwan. He does not imagine China would use military force, he said, as Russia did, to impose its will. Rather, China would try to undermine Taiwan by influencing its internal politics, whether by social media, economics or other nonviolent means.
Right now, Mr. Mitter said, Chinese-Russian relations are “something of a sweet spot” for China, with the war in Ukraine potentially providing reconstruction opportunities for China. China may also be serving as a brake on Putin’s actions in Ukraine.
“The very strong sense that I get is that the one thing that is almost certainly a red line for Beijing is allowing Putin to use nuclear weapons,” he said. “And I would be very, very unsurprised to hear that there had been an intimate, but very, very firm conversation between Xi Jinping and Putin on that matter.”
Moderator: Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent, The New York Times
Participants: Wendy Cutler, vice president, Asia Society Policy Institute; Kirsten Hillman, Canadian ambassador to the U.S.; Rana Mitter, professor of U.S.-Asia Relations, Harvard Kennedy School; Desmond Shum, investor and author;Jing Tsu, East Asian languages and literature professor, Yale; Dan Wang, visiting scholar, Yale Law School; Ravi Mattu, managing editor, DealBook, The New York Times
