Lecture by Ambassador Nicholas Burns
Thursday, October 22 | 5:00 p.m.
Best Buy Theater, Northrop (directions)
China is and will remain the primary competitor of the United States for global military, economic, and technology power well into the next decade. The most recent U.S. Ambassador to China (2021-2025), Nicholas Burns, offers a unique, non-partisan view of the stakes involved for Americans and people worldwide. Specifically, Burns focuses on the opportunities and challenges for business leaders in investing, manufacturing, and trading with China. He offers an authoritative analysis of the competition between the two countries in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, trade, military power in the Indo-Pacific, and other areas. Burns provides a clear, compelling, and in-depth perspective, essential for understanding the power struggle ahead between these global titans.
The China Center’s annual Bob and Kim Griffin Building U.S.- China Bridges Lecture features high-profile speakers who are experts in a wide range of timely and critical China-related topics, from economics and business to culture and politics.
About the Speaker
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Professor Nicholas Burns is the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is the Founder and Faculty Chair of the Program on Diplomacy and Statecraft. He is also a Faculty Affiliate at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, and a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. |
Professor Nicholas Burns is the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is the Founder and Faculty Chair of the Program on Diplomacy and Statecraft. He is also a Faculty Affiliate at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, and a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
Burns served as the U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China from 2021 to 2025, leading public servants from forty-eight U.S. government agencies at the U.S. mission to China in overseeing one of America’s most important and challenging bilateral relationships. During his tenure, he helped to stabilize relations with Beijing while competing with China on military, technology, economic, and human rights issues.