蜜芽传媒

President Trump promised "America First" on the campaign trail, and has delivered that in his second term, unleashing a trade war and causing global economic instability.

In the following months, he rolled-back on some tariffs as a temporary measure, signed a trade deal with the UK- which still left us with tariffs on many goods, and made another deal which still left some tit-for-tat tariffs in place between the US and China.

The US President regards China as an economic enemy, but perversely, his actions may push other countries into China鈥檚 embrace.

For some countries, like Russia, that's a natural fit. Others, like China鈥檚 neighbours South Korea and Japan, have agreed to talks about a free-trade agreement. while the EU says it is seeking to "engage constructively" with Beijing.

So where does that leave the UK? Of late, Labour ministers have been on a charm offensive, with the Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary and the Energy Secretary all visiting China.

So should the UK be seeking closer ties with China? What are the risks, and is China even interested in us?

Presenter: Ben Ansell
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors:
Todd Hall, Director of the University of Oxford China Centre and Professor of International Relations at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University Of Oxford.
Yeling Tan, Professor of public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University and also a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Wang Guan, senior news anchor with The China Media Group and also a founding fellow of the Taihe Institute think tank in Beijing.
Cindy Yu, contributing editor and a columnist at The Times, and presenter of the Chinese Whispers podcast.

Rethink is a 蜜芽传媒 co-production with the Open University

Show less