A Crucial Decade: China Policy during the George W. Bush Administration

This week, Mike and Jude are joined by Paul Haenle, Maurice R.
Greenberg Director’s Chair of Carnegie China and former China
director for the National Security Council staffs of Presidents
George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and Faryar Shirzad, who served in
the Bush administration with Paul as deputy national security
advisor for International Economic affairs and is now Chief Policy
Office at Coinbase. They begin by recapping economic and security
ties between the United States and China at the outset of the Bush
administration in 2001, discussing the administration’s China
policy and the legacy of its approach to Asia more broadly. The
conversation turns to the broader implications of trends in
U.S.-China economic relations, which are increasingly characterized
by heightened government controls and expectations of national
loyalty among multinational firms. Next, they emphasize the
importance of placing the U.S.-China relationship on better footing
and improving communication. They observe how the Bush
administration’s efforts to shape the geopolitical environment
around China have borne out today and conclude with a call for
renewed U.S. pursuit of economic diplomacy. Throughout the
conversation, they discuss Hand-Off, a collection of
once-classified memos that the Bush administration passed to the
incoming Obama administration to support a smooth transition for
U.S. foreign policy.