Ambassador Dan Kritenbrink on US-China Summits and Strategy

Former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink joins CSIS’s Pekingology to discuss U.S.-China diplomacy ahead of the upcoming meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Kritenbrink, who also served as U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam and Senior Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, reflects on Xi’s leadership style and China’s increasingly confident approach to the United States. He discusses the role of leader-level diplomacy in managing competition, lessons from preparing for Xi’s 2015 state visit to Washington, and what effective communication between the two capitals looks like behind closed doors.

The conversation also examines expectations for the Trump-Xi summit, the prospects for maintaining what Kritenbrink calls a “fragile truce,” and the economic, technological, and security issues testing the relationship.

Sources: CSIS (YouTube)