With COVID-19 pandemic forcing border closures, upending economies and limiting the essential people-to-people contact, two professors from across the Pacific, Shen Dingli of China’s Fudan University in Shanghai and James Wertsch of Washington University in St. Louis, connect through a Zoom meeting moderated by China-US Focus Editor-at-large James Chau. The two scholars share their thoughts on the toxic blame culture that is driving down the relationship between the two countries and what communities of each country can do to agree to disagree without the illusion of “making the other like us.” They also discuss a range of issues of an open society, transparency, how China and America have responded to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the student exchange program between Fudan and WUSL. During the conversation, the issues of the Uygur minority in China’s Xinjiang region and the racial tensions underpinning the protest movement in the U.S. were raised and discussed, ending with words of optimism from both inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  (The is part 1 of the 34-mins video of the conversation.)

More "The Pacific Dialogue" videos:

US-China Rivalry & COVID-19  | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3