Wednesday, August 20 I 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
* Luncheon Event *
Venue:
Holland & Knight
511 Union St. #2700 Nashville, TN 37219
Is China the Next Global Superpower?
China is on the move—vying with the U.S. for dominance in trade, technology, and global influence. As American alliances waver and Beijing aligns with powers like Russia and Iran, China is making strategic advances across Africa, Latin America, and the global South. Meanwhile, cutting-edge technologies like DeepSeek AI and EV supremacy suggest a “Sputnik moment” for the U.S.
But the story isn’t one-sided. Inside China, mounting debt, a shrinking workforce, and rising youth unemployment paint a more complex picture. How is President Xi’s tech-driven vision reshaping the economy, and what does it mean for the rest of the world?
In this timely and provocative discussion, China expert Dexter Tiff Roberts will unpack:
· China’s strategy to challenge U.S. global leadership
· Emerging tech and economic rivalries
· Beijing’s growing influence in the Global South
· Internal economic pressures threatening China’s rise
· What does it all mean for global stability, trade, and power dynamics
This is a must-attend for anyone interested in global affairs, U.S.-China relations, and the forces reshaping the 21st century. Whether you’re a student, policymaker, business leader, or globally curious, you’ll leave with sharper insights into the world’s most consequential geopolitical rivalry.
Speaker: Dexter Tiff Roberts
Dexter Tiff Roberts is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council Global China Hub; publisher of Trade War, a weekly on US-China relations and the Chinese economy; instructor in Chinese politics at the University of Montana; author of The Myth of Chinese Capitalism (St. Martin’s Press, 2020). He is the founder and publisher of Trade War, a weekly newsletter on Chinese business and politics, with over 5,000 subscribers from government, finance, and academia, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub, and an instructor in Chinese politics and history at the University of Montana. He is a sought-after commentator on the Chinese economy and U.S.-China relations, with his analysis featured in Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, Politico, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, NPR, the BBC, and CNN.
Roberts served for more than two decades as China bureau chief and Asia News Editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, based in Beijing, where he covered China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, the impact of the Global Financial Crisis, and the rise of authoritarian leader Xi Jinping. He has reported from all of China’s provinces and regions, including Tibet and Xinjiang, as well as from Mongolia, Cambodia, and North Korea. Previously, he was director of China affairs at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center.
Roberts has won numerous journalism honors for his writing, including Overseas Press Club and Society of Publishers in Asia editorial excellence awards. He is regularly asked to share his views on China. He has spoken at the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Asia Society, the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, the Contemporary Centre for China Affairs at India’s Ministry of External Affairs, as well as at numerous universities in the U.S., China and Hong Kong. He has lectured on Chinese disinformation at the Foreign Service Institute at the U.S. Department of State, and provided testimony on the Chinese economy to the congressionally mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and the UK Cabinet Office.
Roberts holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Stanford University and a Master of International Affairs, with a focus on China, from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. He studied at National Taiwan Normal University’s Mandarin Training Center in Taipei and speaks fluent Chinese. Roberts’ first book, The Myth of Chinese Capitalism: the Worker, the Factory and the Future of the World (St. Martin’s Press), was chosen as one of The Economist’s “best books of the year” for 2020, and was a best seller in Chinese, published by Taiwan’s Gusa Publishing.
Moderator: Jeremy Goldkorn
Jeremy Goldkorn is an editorial fellow at the Asia Society’s ChinaFile, the editor of The China Week, and founder of the Rhyming Chaos podcast. He co-founded the Sinica Podcast in 2010, and was editor-in-chief of The China Project from 2016 to 2023. Goldkorn moved from his hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa to China in 1995 and became managing editor of Beijing’s first independent English-language entertainment magazine. He later edited and founded several other publications, including the website Danwei, which tracked Chinese media, markets, politics and business, which was acquired in 2013 by the Financial Times. While in China, he lived in a workers’ dormitory, produced a documentary film about African soccer players in Beijing, and rode a bicycle from Peshawar to Kathmandu via Kashgar and Lhasa. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2015. He is a graduate of the University of Cape Town.
