Elizabeth Economy: US China Tensions, Huawei, and Xi Jinping’s Coming Challenge

Tensions between the United States and China continue to simmer amid trade negotiations, global influence, and the recent arrest of Huawei's CFO in Vancouver.

For context on where things are and where things might go from here, I spoke with Elizabeth Economy, the C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a visiting fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, and, of course, an acclaimed author—her most recent book is The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State.

We discuss the escalating tensions surrounding the US/China trade agreement and the HuaWei situation and its potential ramifications. 

I ask Elizabeth if the the Trump Administration is executing a coherent foreign policy aimed at containing Chinese incursions, or something more reactive—simply a way for the Americans poke Huawei until it gives in to its demands.