CHINA, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND COVID-19: AN INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN RUDD
BY JONGSOO LEE
The rise of China, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic present challenges and opportunities for the Indo-Pacific region. For a perspective on these matters, Jongsoo Lee interviewed Kevin Rudd, president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and former prime minister (2007-2010, 2013) and foreign minister (2010-2012) of Australia.
Jongsoo Lee: In what ways has the COVID-19 pandemic slowed or accelerated the rise of China?
Kevin Rudd: It’s clear that COVID-19 has negatively shaped attitudes to China around the world, not least as a result of the government’s secrecy around the original outbreak at the very start of the year. And it’s clear that this shook Xi Jinping’s leadership in ways he did not expect. But it’s doubtful that this has changed Xi’s fundamental worldview much at all. And while China’s economy was hit the hardest it has been since the Cultural Revolution, it has already bounced back stronger than any other country and is going to be crucial for the rest of the world’s own economic resurgence. The challenge is how they continue to manage the impact to their own standing and then navigate the greater fallout across many parts of the region and the West in particular.
Read the full interview on The Diplomat.
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Jongsoo Lee is a Pacific Council member, Senior Managing Director at Brock Securities, and Center Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. He is also Adjunct Fellow at Hawaii-based Pacific Forum. He can be followed on Twitter at @jameslee004.
This article was originally published by The Diplomat.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and speaker and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.
