Is China Leaving the United States Behind?

中国是否正在甩开美国?

The Foreign Affairs Interview

2026-01-29

1 小时 2 分钟

单集简介 ...

One of the big surprises of Donald Trump’s second term has been the change in his approach to China. His first term marked the start of what seemed to be a hard-line consensus in Washington. But in the past year, the drivers of Trump’s policy have been much harder to decipher—including for Chinese policymakers. Beijing was prepared to respond forcefully to tough U.S. measures, as it has, most prominently, by wielding its control over rare-earth metals. Yet it has also seen new opportunities to gain ground in its bid for global leadership, as Trump’s focus careens from Latin America to the Middle East to Greenland. Jonathan Czin has spent his career decoding the power struggles and ideological debates inside the halls of power in Beijing. Now at the Brookings Institution, Czin long served as a top China analyst at the CIA before becoming director for China at the National Security Council. He sees Beijing’s year of aggressive diplomacy as a success, but with a lot of uncertainty about the months ahead. Xi Jinping faces a series of summits with Trump even as he grapples with economic challenges at home and a military that, if recent purges are any indication, is still not to his liking. Dan Kurtz-Phelan spoke with Czin about China’s approach to Trump 2.0; what to make of the military purges and other developments in Beijing; and the enduring nature of U.S.-Chinese rivalry, whatever the surprises in the short term. You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
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单集文稿 ...

  • Dan I'm Dan Kurtz Phelan, and this is the Foreign affairs interview.

  • Our pathologies and our dysfunctions are making it harder for us to compete with China,

  • whereas China's pathologies is actually in some ways facilitating their presence on the global stage.

  • One of the big surprises of Donald Trump's second term has been the change in his approach to China.

  • His first term marked the start of what seemed to be a hardline consensus in Washington.

  • But in the past year,

  • the drivers of Trump's policy have been much harder to decipher, including for Chinese policymakers.

  • Beijing was prepared to respond forcefully to tough US Measures,

  • as it has most prominently by wielding its control over rare earths.

  • Yet it has also seen new opportunities to gain ground in its bid for global leadership.

  • As Trump's focus careens from Latin America to the Middle east to Greenland,

  • John Zinn has spent his career decoding the power struggles and ideological debates inside the halls of power in Beijing.

  • Now at the Brookings Institution,

  • Xin Long served as a top China analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency before becoming director for China at the National Security Council.

  • He sees Beijing's year of aggressive diplomacy as a success,

  • with a lot of uncertainty about the months ahead.

  • Xi Jinping faces a series of summits with Trump even

  • as he grapples with economic challenges at home and the military that,

  • if recent purges are any indication, is still not to his liking.

  • I spoke with Zin about China's approach to Trump 2.0,