Kurt Campbell on Grand Strategy and US-China

10/05/23 • 59 min

1 Listener

Kurt Campbell is the Deputy Assistant to the President and the White House Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs. ChinaTalk recently joined Campbell in Washington to discuss US-China relations and mark the podcast’s 300th episode.

We discuss:

The nature of national power today;
If China is peaking;
How ideology impacts Beijing’s foreign policy;
Campbell’s hopes and fears for the Biden administration’s Asia policy;
Whether the US is still aiming to “maintain as large of a lead as possible” on chips and AI;
How to think about the risk of and effectively deter military escalation;
And the dark shadow of Tiananmen and its lasting impact on Chinese politics and US foreign policy.

Outtro music: Brahms: Sonata in E flat major for Viola and Piano, Op. 120, No. 2 I. Allegro amabile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrC4rx5VrA

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We discuss:

The nature of national power today;
If China is peaking;
How ideology impacts Beijing’s foreign policy;
Campbell’s hopes and fears for the Biden administration’s Asia policy;
Whether the US is still aiming to “maintain as large of a lead as possible” on chips and AI;
How to think about the risk of and effectively deter military escalation;
And the dark shadow of Tiananmen and its lasting impact on Chinese politics and US foreign policy.

Outtro music: Brahms: Sonata in E flat major for Viola and Piano, Op. 120, No. 2 I. Allegro amabile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrC4rx5VrA

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Previous Episode

Deep Tech VC On AI, Chips, and US-China Competition

James Wang, partner at Creative Ventures, joins to discuss:

Huawei breakthrough implications and why NVIDIA's CUDA will make it particularly difficult to create a useful domestic AI chip
Why China's AI companies have been underperforming my expectations
How semiconductor industry dynamics parallel the challenges facing AI startups
How pizza machines explain AI's future impact on the labor market
Challenges and opportunities in investing in deep tech, including the eager but raw founder talent pool as well as the importance of market structure and distinguishing between R&D and engineering risk

This show was brought to you by Creative Ventures.

Creatives Ventures is at https://creativeventures.vc/

James writes at https://weightythoughts.com/ and tweets at @AJamesWang

Outtro Music: the legendary Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Next Episode

EMERGENCY POD: Two Views from Israel on Hamas + China-Middle East Relations

We discuss their experience of the past few days, China's response, its broader policy and aspirations in the Middle East, and what comes next.

Our first guest is Carice Witte who is the founder and director of the SIGNAL Group.

Second in the episode is Ofir Dayan, a researcher at the Israel-China Policy Center at INSS.

Outtro music: World Champion, sung by family members and victims of terrorism https://youtu.be/yofkk5Vaif8?si=JskMFXK3-srR5z8L

Lyrics translation:

I'm a world champion in repressing

Anything that scares me, anything stressful, I put on mute

I'm a world champion in loving

Firstly myself, then at the stage and the street

The hardest is to give it to someone close

I'm a world champion in not being

In not solving your problems

Even the pictures on the walls

I wasn't the one who hanged them

I'm only in charge of the melodies

I'm a world champion in falling

And getting back up like a champ

You'll see, like a phoenix

I'm burning, but choosing every day to live on

I'm a world champion in wanting

At least trying

You'll see, how in the end

After the losses, the victory is so much sweeter

I'm a world champion

I'm a world champion in justifying

Weaknesses and desires

The urge is an old acquaintance

I know every old trick it keeps in its bag

But look, someday I'll be righteous

Deep down what I have is not enough, at all

I'm a little rat and life is a pipe1

Falling down the hole because I can't distinguish

Between good and evil, and where does it all lead to

You're being all usual

But soon we'll run out of fuse

I'm a world champion in falling

And getting back up like a champ

You'll see, like a phoenix

I'm burning, but choosing every day to live on

I'm a world champion in wanting

At least trying

You'll see, how in the end

After the losses, the victory is so much sweeter

I'm a world champion

I'm a world champion in compensating

Apologizing and pleasing

Sinning, cleansing myself

Exposing, covering up

Say, how can one write songs with a thousand expectations

Millions of views

I'm a world champion in falling

And getting back up like a champ

You'll see, like a phoenix

I'm burning, but choosing every day to live on

I'm a world champion

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you like this episode you’ll love

Aspen Ideas to Go

Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist

How to Fix Democracy

Start Here

Political Gabfest

Episode Comments

Generate a badge

Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode

Select type & size

Copy