Strategic Shifts: Understanding China’s Global Ambitions and U.S.-China Dynamics with Elizabeth Economy
Strategic Shifts: Understanding China’s Global Ambitions and U.S.-China Dynamics with Elizabeth Economy
At the 2025 SCCEI China Conference, Elizabeth Economy, Hargrove Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, outlined China’s ambitious bid to reshape the global order—and urged the U.S. to respond with vision, not just rivalry, during a Fireside Chat with Professor Hongbin Li, Senior Fellow and SCCEI Faculty Co-Director.
At the second annual China Conference hosted by the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions (SCCEI), Dr. Elizabeth Economy, Hargrove Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, spoke with SCCEI Co-Director Hongbin Li about the strategic direction of U.S.-China relations and China’s evolving role on the world stage.
Drawing a diverse audience of researchers, students, and policy experts, the SCCEI China Conference convened at Stanford to advance interdisciplinary dialogue on one of the most consequential bilateral relationships of the 21st century.
Charting the Course from Cooperation to Confrontation
Elizabeth Economy noted that after the rise of China’s middle class, which brought greater market forces and demands, U.S. administrations began to take an approach that focused 90% of their efforts on cooperating with China and 10% on conflict over areas such as trade, Taiwan, and human rights. However, during the second half of the Obama administration efforts began to shift from cooperation towards competition and conflict, leading to a full reversal during Trump’s first administration, now focusing 10% on cooperation and 90% on conflict. Economy stressed that our policies should be based in policy analysis, but noted that the second Trump administration’s trade actions toward China amount to “political gamesmanship” and have no actual basis in economics or trade.
China’s Global Ambitions
In response to a question posed by Professor Li, Economy said, “I think, under Xi Jinping, there are big ambitions.” She followed by listing out several of China’s objectives including:
- Become the dominant power in the Indo-Pacific, which begins with China's sovereignty claims around Taiwan, Hong Kong and the South China Sea;
- Continue to have the international business community be dependent on China for parts of its supply chain;
- Create an insulated domestic economy that is protected from pressures of the global economy but at the same time exerts enormous influence on it;
- Shape the geostrategic and political landscape in new ways through programs like the Belt and Road Initiative and through its behavior in international institutions;
- De-dollarize the global economy and increase the role of the Chinese currency.
Economy concluded by sharing that China has “a number of big ambitions, none of which actually coincides with us,” and although there are certainly areas for collaboration between China and the U.S., she’s not sure the current U.S. administration is interested in exploring them.
Economy’s address was a highlight of the SCCEI China Conference, which featured panels and presentations from leading scholars and practitioners on China’s economy, governance, and international strategy. The event reflects SCCEI’s mission to promote policy-relevant research and open dialogue on China’s role in the global economy.
A full recording of Dr. Economy’s talk is available on YouTube and below.
