Obama and China’s Rise: An Insider’s View of America’s Asia Strategy

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping recently completed his first official trip to the United States and his last before his expected elevation to General-Secretary of the Communist Party this fall. His visit comes three months after a high-profile trip by President Obama to Indonesia and Australia in which the administration’s heightened attention to the Asia Pacific region was in sharp focus. Brookings Senior Fellow Jeffrey Bader served as the senior director for East Asian affairs at the National Security Council from 2009 to 2011 and was at the center of the formulation of U.S. policy toward the region. He describes what he did, what he saw and what it meant in Obama and China’s Rise (Brookings Press, 2012).

On March 8, the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings hosted the launch of Obama and China’s Rise. Bader, now the John C. Whitehead Senior Fellow for International Diplomacy at Brookings, discussed the strategy behind the Obama administration’s policy and the state of U.S.-China relations. Following his remarks, Senior Fellow Kenneth Lieberthal, director of the John L. Thornton China Center, offered commentary. Brookings President Strobe Talbott provided introductory remarks and Vice President Martin Indyk, director of Foreign Policy at Brookings, moderated the discussion.

After the program, speakers took audience questions.