This week, Burn Bag hosts A'ndre and David chat with Ryan Hass, senior fellow and the Michael H. Armacost Chair in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, on China's foreign policy decision-making and strategy, from the 1970s through to the present. We discuss how China's sphere of influence, global standing, and relations with the United States have changed over the decades. Ryan provides an overview of China's foreign policy goals under Xi, and whether they're unique when compared to those of his predecessors. We probe whether China's foreign policy approach is sustainable, and evaluate its relations with India, smaller states, and countries in the Middle East, before dissecting China's approach to Russia amidst the War in Ukraine. We then shift to a broader conversation on China's aggression towards Taiwan, and whether a conflict is inevitable.

Ryan's new book (co-authored with Dr. Richard  Bush and Bonnie Glaser, “U.S.-Taiwan Relations: Will China’s Challenge Lead to a Crisis?”, is out right now.