GW Experts Available: U.S. Secretary of State to Visit China This Week

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to China this week amid efforts to improve relations between the two countries after the U.S. shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon over U.S. airspace in February. The meeting had originally been planned for February but was postponed after the spy balloon incident. According to The Washington Post, “the trip will mark Blinken’s first trip to China as secretary of state and the first time a U.S. secretary of state traveled to China in five years.”

Faculty experts at the George Washington University are available to offer commentary, insight and analysis on U.S.-China relations and other topics to come out of Sec. Blinken’s visit. If you would like to speak with an expert, please contact GW Media Relations Specialists Cate Douglass at [email protected] or Shannon Mitchell at [email protected].

 Robert Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, is an expert on U.S.-China relations, China’s rise-domestic and international implications, Chinese foreign relations, Contemporary U.S. policy toward Asia and the Pacific, and political, security and economic development in Asia and the Pacific. Sutter’s government career saw service as senior specialist and director of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service, the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and the Pacific at the US Government’s National Intelligence Council, the China division director at the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

John W. Tai, professorial lecturer at the GW Elliott School of International Affairs, is a specialist on China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. He has advised the U.S. intelligence community and provided support to the U.S. Department of State. Earlier in his career, he served as an analyst at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. His research interests include Taiwan’s diplomacy, Taiwan’s relations with China and Hong Kong, and China’s effort to expand its global influence. Tai has also recently written about complex relations with China from South Korea’s perspective, in which he discusses how many countries around the world are thinking about how to address China’s growing threat and hostility without jeopardizing their robust economic ties (and for many countries, economic dependency) with China.

Bruce J. Dickson, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, is an expert on the political dynamics in China, especially the adaptability of the Chinese Communist party and the regime it governs as well as U.S.-China relations. Dickson’s research studies the political consequences of economic reform in China, the Chinese Communist Party’s evolving strategy for survival, and the changing relationship between state and society.