Kang Endowed Lecture with Professor Dali L. Yang "U.S.-China Relations: How Did We Get Here, Where Are We Going"

• Event Date: Thursday, April 17, 2025
• Time: 4:30 pm–6:00 pm (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL

• Talk

From confrontation to engagement to rivalry, U.S.-China relations have undergone a dramatic transformation over the past seven decades. This talk traces key patterns and turning points leading to today’s tensions over trade, technology, security, and global influence. As the two superpowers navigate a new phase of strategic competition and mutual suspicion, what are the major flashpoints, risks, and possibilities for cooperation? Offering a clear-eyed look at how we got here and what drives current policy on both sides, this talk explores what the future may hold for the world’s most consequential bilateral relationship.

About the Speakers

Dali L. Yang is the William Claude Reavis Professor of Political Science and Senior Advisor to the President and the Provost on Global Initiatives at the University of Chicago. He was founding Faculty Director of the University of Chicago Center in Beijing from 2010 to 2016. Among his books are Calamity and Reform in China (Stanford University Press, 1996); Remaking the Chinese Leviathan (Stanford University Press, 2004); and Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak Spiraled Out of Control (Oxford University Press, 2024). He is a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Matthew S. Winters is Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.