Polaris Live Podcasts with Host, Sarwar Kashmeri

Among the thorniest and most delicate issues that Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump will face is the future of Taiwan given that any question of its being an integral part of China is the ultimate red-line of China's foreign policy. Therefore, the discussion of Taiwan during the two Presidents' Summit May 14/15 2026 is a major topic of conjecture between Taiwan-China relations experts, of which Bonnie Glaser is a leading interlocutor. Her views are sought by leaders throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States.Polaris-Live is fortunate to have Ms. Glaser speak to its global audience immediately after the Presidential Summit to slice through the diplomatic verbiage that will emerge from the Presidential meeting's official press releases and offer her unvarnished view of what if anything was agreed on Taiwan but also on other Asia-Pacific hot buttons such as Japan's rearmament pland, China's claim to most of the South and East China Sea, and whether the U.S. intends to continue being a strong player in Asia-Pacific. ---------------------------------------------- Bonnie GlaserMs. Glaser is managing director of GMF’s Indo-Pacific program. She is also a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, and a senior associate with the Pacific Forum. She is a co-author of US-Taiwan Relations: Will China's Challenge Lead to a Crisis (Brookings Press, April 2023). She was previously senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Glaser has worked at the intersection of Asia-Pacific geopolitics and US policy for more than three decades.

President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump are scheduled to meet in Beijing on May 14 and 15 for a summit meeting that is expected to cover a number outstanding issues including trade, security, Artificial Intelligence guardrails, Taiwan, and cross investment. Trump’s meeting with Xi has been anticipated for weeks as the two economic powers work to reduce trade tensions and new tariffs. Some analysts believe there is a chance for grand bargain between the leaders of the two most powerful countries in the world while other believe the gap between the two is so wide that a grand bargain is sheer wistful thinking. Dean Wang Wen will help sort through this complicated road-map and give Polaris-Live audiences around the world his opinion about what China will want to get out of this critically important meeting and where there is the likelihood of room for compromise by China. Taiwan and the Iran war will loom large over the 2 leaders negotiations and Dean Wang Wen's view on how this thorny issue will be handled are eagerly awaited.----------------------------------------------- WANG Wen is Dean & Professor of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China (RDCY). He is also the Deputy Dean of Silk Road School, Distinguished Professor, Executive Director of China-US People-to-People Exchange Research Center at Renmin University of China. He works as the Secretary-General of the Green Finance Committee of China Society for Finance and Banking, a Research Fellow of the Financial Research Center of the Counsellor Office of the China’s State Council, and also serves as a visiting professor at more than 10 universities around the world.Prof. WANG has led RDCY for 13 years and remains the youngest principal among Chinese major think tanks. He is the author of more than 30 books, among which "Profound Changes Unseen in Centuries", "Great Power’s Long March Road: The views of China's rejuvenation and the future of the world after hundred countries’ visit", etc. are all best-sellers.Prof. WANG has visited nearly 100 countries and conducted extensive researches and field investigations. He is an advisory consultant for several important Chinese ministries and commissions and has won many honors. In 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over a symposium on philosophy and social science, and Prof. Wang Wen was one of the ten scholars who spoke.View the original broadcast at Polaris-live.comSubscribe to the Polaris-Live Substack Channel .. Includes an Executive Summary of broadcasts sent directly to your inbox!

We apologize for the occasionally distorted audio from Sarwar Kashmeri. He was experiencing a severe thunder storm at his location that interfered with his audio transmission.How does China view its role—both principled and pragmatic—in the evolving West Asia crisis; Especially as it involves energy, trade, global political economy. How do current tensions affect Beijing’s long-term strategic planning. Is China truly neutral, or selectively aligned?How do Global South countries interpret China’s position on the war. How this conflict reflects broader shifts in global governance and international norms.--------------------------------------------- ZHA Daojiong Professor of International Political Economy in the School of International Studies and the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China. His areas of expertise include non-traditional security studies, international political economy and China’s international economic relations. His research publications cover such topics as energy, cross-boundary water management, development aid and public health, and international development cooperation. He also contributes opinion pieces in newspapers including the South China Morning Post. He studied at the University of Hawaii and the East West Center, where he earned a Doctorate in Political Science. Before joining the faculty of Peking University, he taught in the University of Macau, International University of Japan, Miyazaki International College, and Renmin University of China.

Does the President’s actions change the perception of America, after all the U.S. is known as a country of laws, not men! Top down look at the impact of the seeming bypass by Pres. Trump of the USSC decision, as in pronouncing it un-American, taking away from his Make America Great Again trajectory, reminding countries not to think they have avoided tariffs and instituting new tariffs, just in case, using different legal basis. Then, there is the micro-level discussion of will corporations in other countries refuse to pay tariffs until the fog of war clears? How much influence on local decision will Pres. Trump’s very personal, vendetta type reaction have on international corporate reaction. What has the media missed in its coverage?-------------------------------------------------- FLORA HUANGFlora Huang is a Professor of Law and Business at the University of Derby in the UK and a leading expert on global economic governance and international dispute resolution.She currently serves as an EU Chairperson for Arbitration and Trade-and-Sustainable-Development Expert Panels and as an international arbitrator with the China Guangzhou Arbitration Commission. She was also a Central Asian Legal Research Fellow and a Visiting Fellow of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.Professor Huang’s work has significant policy impact. She has provided expert evidence to the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on engagement with China and Central Asia and has worked as legal counsel to the China Import and Export Fair. A widely published scholar with over 80 publications, her research is widely cited by the OECD, parliaments, and various international financial centers. She has also collaborated with prominent international organizations and NGOs, including the UN, WhistleblowersUK, and the Legatum Institute.

Since 2009, China has been Brazil's biggest trade partner, by a large margin, followed by the U.S. However, Americans are more important as investors, and as a source of advanced technology, especially in military cooperation. Polls show that Brazilians admire the United States much more than China, but that they also believe that the Chinese government is more respectful of Brazil's sovereignty.In other words, Brazil needs good relations with both China and the US, and it will be a rising challenge to balance this triangle in a more turbulent world. A unique opportunity to discuss the triangular relationship between the US, China and Brazil, with Brazilian geopolitical expert, Mauricio Santoro.

The resurgence of great-power rivalry—primarily between the United States and China—has not pushed middle and smaller states back into Cold War–style camps. Instead, much of the Global South has become more assertively “non-aligned” (or multi-aligned), carving out independent strategic space, something that would have been very difficult to do just a decade ago. This trend reflects structural changes in the international order including the fact that the International System is no longer Bipolar, U.S. & China offer different benefits, and a residue of Colonial Memory and Sovereignty. How are the U.S. and China adjusting to this seismic change in geopolitics or are they?---------------------------------------------------------- Jorge HeineAmbassador Jorge Heine is a lawyer, IR scholar and diplomat with a special interest in the international politics of the Global South. Ambassador Heine is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.He has served as ambassador of Chile to China, India, and South Africa, and as a Cabinet Minister in the Chilean Government. His prestigious positions include CIGI Professor of Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University, a Guggenheim Fellow; a Visiting Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford University; a United Nations Research Fellow at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC);Ambassador Heine is widely published, including his latest best seller, "The Non-Aligned World: Striking Out In An Era of Great Power Competition."

Dr. Massot recommends that Canada balance its reliance on the US by enhancing ties with Asia and other global markets, while also examining the implications of China's rise and its impact on international trade dynamics. Additionally, her insights advocate for proactive public engagement and policy discussions to foster public opinion in favor of robust Canada-China relations. Through these strategies, Massot believes Canada can better navigate and mitigate the challenges posed by US tariff policies.---------------------------------------------------- Pascale Massot is an associate professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is also non-resident Honorary Fellow, Political Economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, a Senior Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and a non-resident Fellow with the Centre for China Studies, National Taiwan University.She was a member and adviser to the Co-Chairs of the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs’ Indo-Pacific Advisory Committee, which was tasked with providing recommendations to the Minister on the development of Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy. She also served as the Senior Advisor for China and Asia in the offices of various Canadian Cabinet ministers, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of International Trade, between 2015 and 2017 and again between 2020 and 2021.Pascale Massot is the author of "China’s Vulnerability Paradox: How the World’s Largest Consumer Transformed Global Commodity Markets" (Oxford University Press, 2024) – Winner of the 2024 Best Book Award in International Political Economy from the International Studies Association and 2024 Peter Katzenstein Book Prize. Her work has been published in English, French, and Mandarin in various outlets, including New Political Economy, International Journal, and The Globe and Mail.

Is the West being economically outflanked in the Middle East by China? Is the Renminbi now a strong alternative trade option for the Middle East trade? Have events in Gaza damaged U.S. trade and political prospects.-------------------------------------------- Nicolas Michelon Managing Partner at Alagan Partners, a corporate geoeconomics consultancy in Dubai. He advises multinational companies, institutional investors and family offices on geopolitical & geo-economic risk, supply chain resilience, strategic foresight and tech startup investment in the GCC, Asia-Pacific, Türkiye and Europe. He is also a Business Partner at Alagan.Tech Solutions, an Istanbul-based sustainability and mobility solutions advisory firm. Nicolas has worked for 15 years in Hong Kong, Singapore & Japan as an economist (French Ministry of Finance, seconded to the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong), financial analyst (KPMG in Hong Kong), portfolio manager (Schroders in Singapore) and more recently as a corporate geoeconomics and strategic intelligence consultant specialized in the Global South. Regularly featured in business media in the UAE & Türkiye, and a conference speaker he is also an Adjunct Professor & Guest Lecturer in geopolitics, geoeconomics and strategic intelligence at ESCP Business School (Paris), Galatasaray University (Istanbul), University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (Rabat), and the Paris School of Economic Warfare, and a member of the International Consortium for the Study of Economic Leverage in Peace and Conflict (ICEL) coordinated by King’s College London.