Assessing the U.S.-China Trade Deal

U.S. President Donald Trump signed the first phase of a new trade deal with China last week, calling the agreement “a momentous step toward a future of fair and reciprocal trade” and one that “rights the wrongs of the past.” China’s chief trade negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He, in turn, said the deal was “conducive to world peace and prosperity.”

Asia Society Policy Institute Vice President Wendy Cutler, a longtime diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, said the deal was “meaningful with substantive provisions, yet falls way short of the ambitious objectives that the Trump administration set out at the start of the talks.”

Click here to read Cutler’s full commentary on the trade deal as well as reactions from her ASPI colleagues Kevin Rudd and Daniel Russel.

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PODCAST

Daniel Dae Kim on Making Hollywood More Diverse — From Behind the Camera

In 2017, Korean-American actor Daniel Dae Kim departed the CBS reboot of Hawaii Five-O after revealing that he and actress Grace Park earned less than their white costars on the show. Since then, in his work as a producer, Kim has sought to increase the diversity of stories brought to the screen.

In the latest episode of Asia In-Depth, Kim speaks to Asia Society Southern California Senior Adviser Janet Yang, herself a distinguished Hollywood producer, about the importance of representation in film and television. The conversation featured in this episode occurred at Asia Society’s U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit held last November in Los Angeles.

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CURRENT AFFAIRS

After Taiwan's Elections: What Comes Next?

A year ago, following heavy losses by her Democratic Progressive Party in local elections, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen faced an uphill climb in her bid for re-election. Last week, she handily won a second term. What accounted for Tsai’s reversal of fortune — and what does it say about the current state of politics in Taiwan?

In the latest program in Asia Society New York’s Asia Briefing series, Asia Society Executive Vice President Tom Nagorski spoke with experts Susan Thornton and Vincent Wei-cheng Wang about how protests in Hong Kong influenced Taiwan's vote and why tensions in the U.S.-China relationship do not necessarily benefit the island.

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ET CETERA

The World's Silence on Xinjiang; What the 2020s Will Bring

Here’s what else is happening:

Asia Society’s Matt Schiavenza considers why so few countries have criticized China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang in a piece for ChinaFile.
In a lecture at Asia Society Hong Kong, historian and author Niall Ferguson argues that Donald Trump-style populism will continue to shape global politics into the early 2020s but that the pendulum will swing to the left by the middle of the decade.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Jan. 21: Poet and writer Tishani Doshi discusses her new novel Small Days and Nights with legendary author Salman Rushdie at Asia Society New York. The live webcast for this program begins at 6:30 p.m.
Jan. 22: Asia Society President and CEO Josette Sheeran speaks with Ethan Allen Chairman and CEO Farooq Kathwari, who emerged from Kashmir to become leader of one of America’s most iconic companies. The webcast for this program begins at 6:30 p.m.
Jan. 26: Political analyst Shuja Nawaz discusses his latest book The Battle for Pakistan: The Bitter U.S. Friendship and a Tough Neighbourhood at a program organized by Asia Society Texas at The Cannon in Houston.
Jan. 27: Lan Yan documents her extraordinary life — from an elite childhood in Mao-era China to persecution during the Cultural Revolution to a successful business career — in her new book The House of Yan. She tells her story at Asia Society New York in conversation with CNN journalist Bianna Golodryga. The live webcast begins at 6:30 p.m.
Jan. 28: Asia Society Policy Institute President Kevin Rudd assesses the state of the U.S.-China relationship in 2020 with veteran diplomat John D. Negroponte at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.

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