Institute for China-America Studies 2025 Annual Conference

As the world adjusts to the shifting dynamics of power, technology, and global governance, the relationship between the United States and China stands as the central axis of international affairs.

Held under the theme “Charting the Future: U.S.–China Relations in an Era of Global
Realignment”, the conference will reflect on the aftermath of the U.S. 2024 presidential election, the mercurial first ten months of the second Trump administration, the evolution of China's global strategy, and the changing priorities of a multipolar world. With intensifying challenges—ranging from technological decoupling and trade frictions to military tensions and climate crises—the future of U.S.–China engagement demands renewed analysis and dialogue.

Panel 1 is titled Geopolitics in Flux – U.S.–China Strategic Competition and Global Conflict and Panel 2 is Trade, Technology, and the Future of Global Fragmentation.

Info: As the world enters a new phase of geopolitical uncertainty, the U.S.–China strategic rivalry increasingly intersects with global and regional crises—from the ongoing war in Ukraine and tensions between Israel and Iran, to shifting power dynamics in the Indo-Pacific and the Arctic. The Trump Administration’s National Defense Strategy doubles-down on the prioritization of the Indo-Pacific theater, even at the expense of a relative retrenchment from Europe. This panel will examine how the bilateral competition is being shaped by, and in turn shaping, the evolving global and regional security landscape as well as deterrence and stability in the Indo-Pacific region with a focus on the Taiwan Strait.

Info: The U.S. and China are in the throes of a competition to dominate the technologies of tomorrow, as well as furnish industrial resilience and self-sufficiency at home. Both have laid out expansive approaches on AI. On the industrial resilience and reshoring front, the Trump Administration has persecuted a tariff war like no other in the annals of recent history and seeks to decouple China-linked supply chains in a number of strategic products. For its part, China is racing up the advanced manufacturing technology ladder to furnish self-sufficiency in core technologies at home, even as it seeks to diversify its export markets. Both are engaged in a high-wire bilateral negotiation to preserve their trading relationship and stabilize overall political ties.

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Host or Publisher Institute for China-America Studies