CWP Alum Jessica Chen Weiss Interview With KraneShares

January 24, 2023
KraneShares Logo

A Refined Approach to China: Jessica Chen Weiss on US-China Relations

Jessica Chen Weiss is trending right now. After a high-profile New Yorker feature, she is being characterized as the embodiment of a refined approach to China in Washington. Before the New Yorker article, we are proud to say that we had the opportunity to sit down with her at our KraneShares Annual Institutional Investor Conference held at the Yale Club in New York City on November 30. Weiss’s influence stems from her recent position as a Senior Advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and her role as the Michael J. Zak Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies at Cornell University, where she specializes in Chinese politics and nationalism.

Weiss was joined by KraneShares General Counsel and former U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, David Adelman. Adelman leads an ongoing discussion series at KraneShares featuring policymakers and thought leaders on diplomacy and US-China relations. Recent programs have included discussions with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, U.S. Ambassador to China during the Trump Administration, Terry Branstad, U.S. Ambassador to China during the Obama Administration Max Baucus, and former U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.

Key takeaways from Weiss’s discussion:

  • Protests in China were primarily aimed at zero COVID policies, but public health issues are still a concern
  • After the Biden-Xi summit at the G20 conference in Bali, there have been positive steps forward in the US-China relationship, but challenges still exist
  • China’s desire for international stability is creating a window for diplomacy with the U.S. and new “limits” to China’s “friendship without limits” with Russia
  • U.S. export controls on semiconductors are centered around national security concerns and did not come as a surprise to China
  • China changing its laws to allow U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) officials into Hong Kong for the first time shows there are areas where compromise is achievable
  • While U.S. domestic politics surrounding Taiwan may present a risk of escalation, China prefers a peaceful approach to dealing with Taiwan

We have summarized the key highlights of the discussion and provided the video of the discussion below.

 

Jessica Chen Weiss is the Michael J. Zak Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies in the Department of Government at Cornell University. From August 2021 to July 2022, she served as senior advisor to the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department on a Council on Foreign Relations Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars (IAF-TIRS). Weiss is the author of Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China’s Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 2014). Her research appears in International Organization, China Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Security Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, and Review of International Political Economy, as well as in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Quarterly. Weiss was previously an assistant professor at Yale University and founded FACES, the Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford University. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, she received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 2008, where her dissertation won the 2009 American Political Science Association Award for best dissertation in international relations, law and politics. 

Photo Credit: https://government.cornell.edu/jessica-chen-weiss - https://as.cornell.edu/files/second/2021-05/headshot-iss-jessica-chen-weiss-compressed.jpeg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Kraneshares_logo.svg

Jessica Chen Weiss