This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with William (Bill) Klein, who served as acting deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from 2016 to mid-2021. In a wide-ranging conversation, he offers insights about his postings at AIT in Taiwan in the aftermath of the Sunflower Movement, the APEC meeting in Hangzhou, and the vicissitudes of Sino-American diplomacy during the turbulent Trump years — Taiwan issues, the trade war, Huawei and diplomatic hostage-taking, the COVID-19 outbreak, and much more. Bill offers a measured and balanced view, exhibiting the same thoughtfulness and empathy that made him a great diplomat.
2:56 – The aftermath of the global financial crisis as the inflection point in U.S.-China relations
4:14 – Taiwan and the Sunflower Movement: Bill’s years at AIT
8:33 – The G20 meeting in Hangzhou, 2016
12:12 – Chinese perspectives on the U.S. presidential race of 2016
16:40 – The Tsai Ing-wen phone call
19:17 – Trump pulls out of Paris
21:09 – The onset of the Trade War
24:44 – Ambassador Terry Branstad, his relationship with Xi, and what he accomplished
27:48 – The conflict over Chinese technology: Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, and the Two Michaels.
35:20 – The Trump response to early reports of the Xinjiang camps
39:35 – The view from the U.S. Embassy as the SARS CoV-2 virus began to spread
47:26 – The emerging Chinese consensus on U.S. intentions toward China — and how the Houston Consulate closure was a turning point.
A transcript of this interview is available on TheChinaProject.com.
Recommendations:
Bill: Project Hail Mary, a science fiction novel by Andy Weir.
Kaiser: “The Modern Chinese Novel,” an online course available free on YouTube by Christopher Rea.
