CHINA US Focus - Perspectives shaping the world's most important bilateral relationship

The Summer Olympic Games are over but the competition between the US and China will persist long after the final medal ceremony. The US should continue to strive for 1st place but must begin reinvesting in its own country while respecting China’s rise if the US hopes to succeed.

What is behind the claims that Chinese athletes are spectacularly different to Western ones, the idea that they are forced against their will towards victory, in contrast to the “natural-born winners” of the West?

Patriotism, it has been said, is the last refuge of scoundrels. Indeed, with 86% of the American public disapproving of Congress' performance, refuge-seeking politicians have wrapped themselves in the flag to denounce the fact that the U.S. Olympic team's uniforms were manufactured in China. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said he was "so upset [...]

On July 27, 2012, the Summer Olympic Games will open in London. Around the world, people are watching closely an exciting competition between the U.S. and China for Olympic superiority.

As we reflect on the 40th anniversary of President Nixon’s trip to China, and Secretary Kissinger’s secret trip a year earlier that paved the way for this diplomatic breakthrough, it is easy to overlook the importance of exchanges between the United States and China that took place outside the political arena as our two countries [...]