Episode 277: Are Pandas and Fentanyl Enough?

Today, Jamil, Les, and Morgan discuss the meeting between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at APEC 2023 in San Francisco, the first face-to-face meeting in over a year and Xi’s first visit to the U.S. in six years. The talks aimed to normalize relations at a time when the relationship between the U.S. in China has been fraught with tension. Topics discussed during the summit included re-establishing military-to-military communications, stopping fentanyl precursors from being shipped to the US, and sending us more pandas! Shortly after the summit, though, President Biden (accurately) referred to President Xi as a dictator and many issues, including Chinese threats to Taiwan and IP theft and US export controls.Was this summit all talk, or will we see a real reset? Is China’s effort to force the US to support reunification likely to make things more tense?  Should we take a harder line with China diplomatically?Want to learn more about this topic? Check out these articles that our experts used to frame our discussion: https://www.npr.org/2023/11/16/1213401317/did-biden-and-chinas-xi-hit-a-reset-not-quite-but-they-did-agree-on-a-few-thingshttps://thehill.com/policy/international/4313668-xi-gets-standing-ovation-at-banquet-with-us-executives/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/16/us/politics/biden-xi-china-power-balance.htmlhttps://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/16/biden-xi-dictator-00127548Follow our experts on Twitter: @jamil_n_jaffer @lestermunson@morganlroachLike what we're doing here?  Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe.  And don't forget to follow @masonnatsec on Twitter! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.