This seminar has been cancelled due to unforseen circumstances.

Lecture Abstract:

It is hard to underestimate the importance of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship for both countries and the Asia Pacific region. While recent headlines focus on the tensions that exist within that relationship, there are also many positive developments. The U.S. and China every year continue to increase their investment in each other’s economies and have increased their cooperation on the international stage on everything from climate change to the Iran nuclear deal. With so many mixed signals coming out about this key relationship, what does the future hold?

With years of experience covering China both as a writer and now as founding Editor for Asia Society’s online magazine ChinaFile, Susan Jakes is aptly positioned to address this question. After more than a decade with her critical lens focused on China, Ms. Jakes is coming to RSIS to share her experiences and insights on the current state of U.S.-China relations and where that relationship might head in the future.

About the Speaker:

Susan Jakes is an award-winning journalist who has covered contemporary China for the past decade. Jakes joined the Asia Society in 2010 as an Arthur Ross Fellow and oversaw the design, concept development, and launch of ChinaFile, an English-language online magazine which publishes both original and syndicated writing, photography and film content on China.

In addition to the day-to-day editing of ChinaFile, Jakes also helps organize and host the magazine’s public events series, ChinaFile Presents, and is active in the Center on U.S.-China Relations’ other projects in public diplomacy. She is a frequent commentator on China for U.S. print and broadcast media.

Prior to joining the Asia Society, from 2007-2010 Jakes was a Ph.D. student in modern Chinese history at Yale University. Before commencing her graduate program, Jakes spent 7 years as a writer for TIME magazine based in Hong Kong and Beijing, covering a wide range of topics for Time’s international and domestic editions including: Chinese politics, the economy, student nationalism, human rights, the environment, public health, education, architecture, kung fu, North Korea’s nuclear weapons, and the making of Bhutan’s first feature film.