When Two Superpowers Meet: A Conversation With Nicholas Burns
From The Foreign Affairs Interview by Foreign Affairs Magazine
May 11, 2026 · 57 min
About this episode
Nicholas Burns discusses the upcoming summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, focusing on key issues and stakes in U.S.-Chinese relations.
Not long ago, it was practically a truism to say that a hard line on China was the only real bipartisan position in American foreign policy. To the extent such a consensus ever existed, Donald Trump has upended it in his second term—leaving considerable uncertainty about just what he wants to achieve when he travels to China to meet with Xi Jinping this week, and what Xi hopes to achieve in return. To make sense of how the Chinese are approaching the summit and the options U.S. policymakers have at their disposal, Dan Kurtz-Phelan spoke to Nicholas Burns, a longtime American diplomat who served as ambassador to China until January of 2025. In this special bonus episode recorded on Thursday, May 7, Burns discusses the issues that will take center stage when Trump meets Xi—from trade and technology to Iran, Taiwan, and Ukraine—and the enormous stakes for U.S.-Chinese competition going forward. You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
People in this episode
Host: Dan Kurtz-Phelan
Guest: Nicholas Burns
Topics covered
- U.S.-China relations
- foreign policy
- diplomacy
- trade
- technology
- international competition
Keywords
- China
- Trump
- Xi Jinping
- foreign policy
- diplomacy
- trade
- technology
- Taiwan
- Iran
- Ukraine
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Foreign Affairs Magazine
Places: China, United States, Iran, Taiwan, Ukraine
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