During the one hour and a half session, Dr Dupont first outlined the thesis of his latest Hinrich Foundation report titled New Cold War: De-risking the US-China conflict. He analyzed the parallels and differences between this new Cold War and the old one, before elaborating on the importance of middle power diplomacy to mitigate tensions.
Dr Searight then proceeded to explain the causes of recent escalations from the US perspective and the general policy direction Washington is taking towards China, as well as how this might change under a Biden administration. Professor Zhu brought in the Chinese perspective and shared his thoughts on the prospect of Sino-US relations.