Following the Trump–Xi meeting in mid-May, officials in both the United States and China started describing bilateral ties as "a constructive relationship of strategic stability." However, both countries have different views of what this term means and its implications for U.S.-China relations. While the United States does not see a large difference between "strategic stability" and its other recent approaches to China, China views this new term as an acknowledgement of its superpower status on the global stage. Is the U.S.-China relationship entering a new phase or is this simply a new rhetorical framing?

Victor Shih joined us on July 9, 2026 to discuss the way the United States and China view their relationship with each other after the Trump-Xi meeting in May.

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U.S. companies in China are navigating a widening gap between opportunity and risk. Even as profitability rebounds and China remains critical to companies' global competitiveness, escalating tariffs, tightening export controls, and a fragile trade truce are forcing American businesses to rethink how —and whether— they operate there.

In this conversation on August 3, National Committee President Steve Orlins interviews Sean Stein, president of the US-China Business Council (USCBC), about USCBC's recently released 2026 Member Survey of 175 American companies doing business in China. Mr. Stein discusses why companies continue to view China as essential despite mounting headwinds, including bilateral tariffs, Chinese export controls on rare earths, and rising competition from increasingly capable Chinese firms. He also addresses the outlook for the U.S.-China trade truce, which is set to expire in November, and what American businesses say is needed from both governments to stabilize the relationship.

About the speaker

Why does the United States rely on China for critical minerals and what are the economic and security implications of this interdependence? From fighter jets to fridges, critical minerals are everywhere, shaping the global economy and our daily lives. Today, China dominates many points along critical mineral supply chains, such as mining and refining, following decades of intentional industrial policy. After years of relying on Chinese companies for these vital inputs, the United States has grown uncomfortable with its dependence on China for critical minerals. This economic chokehold became evident when Washington imposed tariffs and advanced chip export controls on China, causing Beijing to restrict rare earth exports to the United States – jeopardizing economic stability and galvanizing U.S. efforts to build up alternative, China-free supply chains. How realistic is completely decoupling critical mineral dependence from China?

Cory Combs joined us on July 23, 2026, to discuss the reasons behind and implications of the United States' critical mineral chokepoints with China.

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In an interview conducted on May 4, 2026, Laura Silver joins Steve Orlins to discuss the data on how American perceptions of China have changed over the past year. Americans' views toward China are changing, according to a recent Pew Research Center report published this April: today, 27 percent of Americans have a positive opinion of China, up six percentage points from last year and nearly double the share from 2023. Amid several notable findings in the survey, some of the most striking are:

• Confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping to do the right thing regarding world affairs has increased four percentage points since last year and has roughly doubled since 2023.
• When asked whether China is a partner, enemy, or competitor of the United States, fewer Americans now describe China as an enemy than in 2025, though most still view it as a competitor.
• Slightly fewer Americans now than last year say China benefits from trade at the expense of the United States.

About the speaker: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/americans-shifting-views-on-china-in-recent-years/

With a growing young population, vast natural resources, and emerging technology hubs, countries across Africa have become key sites for diplomatic competition between the United States and China. Focusing on Ethiopia, Maria Repnikova examines the ambitious and disjointed display of Chinese diplomatic influence in Africa, developing a new theoretical approach to understanding China's practice of soft power, identifying the core mechanisms as tangible enticement with material and experiential offerings, promotion of values, visions, and governance practices, and censorial power over the production and dissemination of China narratives.

Through in-depth field work, Dr. Repnikova builds a picture of the uneven implementation and reception of this image-making, in which Chinese messengers can improvise official agendas, and Ethiopian recipients can strategically appropriate and negotiate Chinese power. Contrary to popular claims about China replacing the West in the Global South, her study reveals the successes, inconsistencies, and limitations of Chinese influence, as well as the ever-present shadow of the West in mediating soft-power encounters.

In an interview conducted on July 26, 2026, Maria Repnikova joins Xiaoyu Pu to discuss China's soft power in Africa.

About the program: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/competing-for-soft-power-chinas-image-making-in-africa/

On June 12, 2026, the U.S. government placed Anthropic's two most capable models under export controls, the first time a frontier AI model itself, rather than the chips beneath, it was treated as a controlled item. While the controls were later removed, it presented a new source of uncertainty for closed models coming out of American frontier labs. At almost exactly the same time, Chinese firms, specifically Z.ai and Moonshot, released several highly capable open-source models, which sharpened a core tension in U.S. strategy: promoting open diffusion to extend American influence while locking down its most advanced, closed systems.

In this program, Samm Sacks and Kevin Xu join Graham Webster to unpack why the export controls were placed, why China has been leaning into open-source, and what this means for U.S. and Chinese leadership in artificial intelligence, respectively.

About the program: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/open-or-closed-export-controls-and-the-future-of-u-s-china-ai/

In Chinese Global Environmentalism, Alex L. Wang examines China's embrace of green development on the global stage. He traces Chinese global environmentalism's evolution and motivations and analyzes its deployment through the governance tools of green ideology, diplomacy, economic statecraft, and international development cooperation. He conceives of Chinese global environmentalism as a wide-ranging economic and political strategy used to unsettle traditional views of China and bolster the legitimacy of Chinese power at home and abroad. The author argues that Chinese global environmentalism, while not without its fits and starts, is enabling China to make inroads internationally with implications for China's rise and the natural environment that are only beginning to be appreciated.

In an interview conducted on June 4, 2026, Alex Wang joins Joanna Lewis to discuss China's role on the global stage when it comes to environmental development.

About the program: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/chinese-global-environmentalism/

Countries across the globe are increasingly focused on the Arctic due to its expanding shipping routes, vast natural resources, and cutting-edge scientific research opportunities. China views the Arctic as a critical new frontier for its economic and geostrategic opportunities. Since China isn't geographically located in the Arctic, it must work with other nations, like Russia, to achieve its aims in the region. However, Chinese engagement in the Arctic has been met with skepticism, especially from the United States and European nations weary of China's relationship with Russia and the impact of China's economic activity on their own industries.

Elizabeth Wishnick joined us on June 6, 2026 to discuss China's economic and security interests in the Arctic and China's reception in the region.

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