Is democracy essential to U.S.-China relations?

Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. In 2019-2021, he served as the Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, executive secretary of the department's Commission on Unalienable Rights, and senior adviser to the Secretary of State. He is a 2017 winner of the Bradley Prize. At Hoover, he is a member of the Military History/Contemporary Conflict Working Group. In addition, he serves as dean of studies for the Public Interest Fellowship, and teaches for the Tikvah Fund in the United States and in Israel.

Elizabeth Economy is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. She serves as a senior foreign advisor in the Department of Commerce for the current administration. Economy is an acclaimed author and expert on Chinese domestic and foreign policy. Her most recent book, The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State, was shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize, a prestigious literary award for foreign affairs books.

Patricia M. Kim is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow at Brookings and holds a joint appointment to the John L. Thornton China Center and the Center for East Asia Policy Studies. She is an expert on Chinese foreign policy, U.S.-China relations, and U.S. alliance management and regional security dynamics in East Asia. Previously, Kim served as a China specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she focused on China's impact on conflict dynamics around the world and directed major projects on U.S.-China strategic stability and China's growing presence in the Red Sea region. She was also a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, International Security Program Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program at Princeton University.

Aynne Kokas is associate professor of media studies and faculty senior fellow at the Miller Center. Educated at the Beijing Film Academy, the University of Michigan, and with a Ph.D. from UCLA, Kokas has also been a participant in the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on U.S. China Relations. She is the author of Hollywood Made in China, a study of the partnerships between Chinese and American producers to produce feature films for global audiences. She is currently conducting research as a Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, on “Border Control on the Digital Frontier: China, the United States, and the Global Battle for Data Security.” Her work examines the risks and opportunities surrounding the collection and control of personal data through new forms of surveillance.