China: A Common Transatlantic Challenge

Late last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a controversial speech about engagement with China in the past, present, and future – and called upon democratic and free societies to stand up to an increasingly authoritarian and internationally assertive China. Europe has been directly – and indirectly – affected by increasing rivalry between China and the United States. The Trump administration has long been critical of the stance of European allies vis-à-vis China. However, the United States and Europe have shared interests when it comes to developing an approach to China and this realization may now gain traction through a new initiative, the EU-US Dialogue on China agreed to by Secretary Pompeo and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell. Has the moment for transatlantic collaboration on China arrived? What are the opportunities and challenges for greater cooperation amongst allies across the Atlantic?

The American Council on Germany and the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society are partnering to host an online conversations about the United States, Europe, and China. We hope you can join us on Thursday, July 30 at 11 am ET for a panel discussion with Dr. Melanie Hart, Senior Fellow and Director of China Policy at the Center for American Progress; Dr. Mikko Huotari, Executive Director of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS); and, Dr. Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society, on “China: A Common Transatlantic Challenge.”

Dr. Melanie Hart is a senior fellow and director of China Policy at the Center for American Progress. She leads the organization’s work on China and U.S.-China relations. Her most recent work focuses on developing a comprehensive U.S. strategy toward China, analyzing the domestic political factors driving Chinese foreign policy in the Xi Jinping era, tracking Chinese industrial policy in the energy and information technology sectors, and assessing China’s intentions toward the global order.

Dr. Hart has worked on Chinese domestic and foreign policy issues for nearly two decades. Before joining American Progress, she worked primarily in the information technology sector, helping American businesses understand China’s emerging industrial policies. She currently serves on the board of the American Mandarin Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the professional development of current and future stewards of the U.S.-China relationship.

Dr. Hart has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, San Diego, and a B.A. from Texas A&M University. She studied Chinese at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing and has worked as a Chinese-English translator for Caijing Magazine.

Dr. Mikko Huotari is the Executive Director of MERICS. His research focuses on China’s foreign policy, China-Europe relations and global (economic) governance and competition. He has published on China’s rise as a financial power, trade and investment relations with Europe as well as on geopolitical shifts related to China’s emergence as a global security actor.

Dr. Huotari studied in Freiburg, Nanjing and Shanghai. He holds a Ph.D. from Freiburg University and was a guest scholar at the University of California in San Diego in 2017/2018. In 2019, he was appointed as one of 15 German representatives to the German-Chinese Dialogue Forum.

Dr. Orville Schell is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society. He is a former professor and Dean at the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism. Dr. Schell is the author of fifteen books, ten of them about China, and a contributor to numerous edited volumes, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Nation, and The New York Review of Books. His most recent book is Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the 21st Century with John Delury (2013). Dr. Schell worked for the Ford Foundation in Indonesia, covered the war in Indochina as a journalist, and has traveled widely in China since the mid-70s.