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The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Podcast

Lawfare Daily: Did Washington Walk Into Beijing’s Trap? Xi’s State Visit with Jonathan Czin

Sep 30, 2026 · 47m

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Lawfare Public Service Fellow Julia Curlee sits down with Jonathan Czin, the Michael H. Armacost Chair in Foreign Policy Studies and fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, to unpack Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington, his first in 11 years. The two former CIA and National Security Council colleagues discuss what each side walked away with, including a two-month extension of the trade truce and potential channels on artificial intelligence and military crisis communications. They look at the implications for Taiwan, the war in Iran, and how the loss of China expertise and policy staff showed in the summit’s preparation and readouts. For further reading,…