On July 17, 2012 the Atlantic Council’s International Security Program hosted a conversation with Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Former National Security Advisor Steve Hadley on the way forward for US-China relations.

The discussion built on the ideas advanced by Secretary Paulson in his Atlantic Council issue brief “A New Framework for US-China Economic Relations,” which was released at the event. This brief is part of the Council’s ‘Task Ahead’ series, which features memos from top foreign policy practitioners on the greatest international challenges facing the winner of the November 2012 US presidential elections.

US-China relations promise to be one of the most significant challenges for the next president. The winner of the next election will be confronted with the challenge of working with a new leadership team in Beijing, a cooling Chinese economy that will affect the prospects for sustained global growth, and a complex security relationship marked by both competition and shared interests.

Henry Paulson is chairman of the Paulson Institute at the University of Chicago and served President George W. Bush as the 74th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. He served previously as the chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. Stephen Hadley is a founding partner of RiceHadleyGates LLC and a member of the executive committee of the Atlantic Council’s Board of Directors. He served as the national security advisor to President George W. Bush, among other senior US government positions.

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