hinrichfoundation 7d ago

In this special edition of the Hinrich Foundation’s podcast on global trade, the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents-USA sits down with Evan Medeiros, Director of Asian Studies and the Penner Family Chair in Asian Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, to examine how the 2025 US-China trade war shifted from tariffs to chokepoints, exposing asymmetric vulnerabilities and ushering in a race for leverage across rare earths, semiconductors, and advanced technology.  The 2025 US-China trade war marked a structural shift in the bilateral relationship, moving beyond tariff escalation into a broader contest over chokepoints, vulnerabilities, and leverage. What began as tit-for-tat tariff measures evolved into a supply chain conflict as Washington and Beijing targeted critical dependencies to impose costs and extract strategic advantage. China’s rare-earth export controls exposed US vulnerabilities in industrial supply chains, while US leverage in semiconductor design software and advanced chipmaking tools underscored China’s continued reliance on American capabilities. Evan Medeiros (https://www.hinrichfoundation.com/profiles/experts-contributors/evan-s-medeiros) , Director of Asian Studies and the Penner Family Chair in Asian Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, argues that this new phase is best understood as a race: each side is trying to reduce its exposure to the other’s leverage while expanding its own. The result is a more fragile and disruptive form of competition, where interdependence itself can be weaponized as a source of power. Tune in to this podcast as Medeiros joins the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents-USA to examine how the US and China are adapting to a more contested era of economic interdependence. The podcast draws on Medeiros’s recent white paper for the National Bureau of Asian Research, published with support from the Hinrich Foundation, “A New Era of US-China Interaction: From Competing to Racing (https://www.hinrichfoundation.com/research/wp/trade-geopolitics/a-new-era-of-us-china-interaction) .” Download Transcript (https://www.hinrichfoundation.com/research/podcast/trade-geopolitics/us-china-race-from-tariffs-to-chokepoints)  Tune into the Hinrich Foundation’s podcast series (https://www.hinrichfoundation.com/global-trade/podcast/) for insights on international trade.