Trump's Beijing Detour & China's Role in the Iran Endgame: Craig Singleton

About this episode

Michael discusses U.S.-China relations and the implications of the upcoming summit with Craig Singleton.

Michael is joined by Craig Singleton, Senior Director of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to preview the long-delayed summit between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week. With the war in Iran looming over the meeting, Craig discusses whether Beijing will leverage its influence over Tehran as a bargaining chip or continue to provide the regime with a critical economic lifeline. He also focuses on the unbalanced dependencies that define the U.S.-China relationship—from the weaponization of trade to the national security risks posed by Chinese dominance in the battery and electric vehicle markets. Craig also explains what China's plans could be for Taiwan, and why the U.S. can't build its next industrial economy on supply chains controlled by Beijing.

People in this episode

Host: Michael

Guest: Craig Singleton

Topics covered

• U.S.-China relations
• Iran conflict
• economic influence
• national security
• trade dependencies
• Taiwan

Keywords

• Trump
• China
• Iran
• Xi Jinping
• national security
• trade
• Taiwan
• economic lifeline
• battery market

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Places: China, Iran, Taiwan

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