Susan Thornton on US-China ties, post-midterms and averting a new balloon crisis
Por Orange Wang — South China Morning Post – News feed
Advertisement 2026 Xi-Trump summits China Diplomacy Susan Thornton on US-China ties, post-midterms and averting a new balloon crisis
AI dialogue and security issues are among the most difficult bilateral points amid ‘fragile stability’, former senior American diplomat says
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Orange Wang Published: 6:00am, 15 Oct 2026
Susan Thornton is a former American diplomat who for decades worked on US policy in Eurasia in the State Department before becoming acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs during the first Trump presidency. She is the director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and a senior fellow at the Paul Tsai China Centre, Yale Law School. She spoke to Orange Wang about keeping the lines of China-US communication open.
For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here . What do you think overall of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping ? The summit was necessary. Leader-level meetings are the only guardrail we really have in US-China relations right now. It is very important that these meetings happen. Select Voice Select Speed 0.8x 0.9x 1.0x 1.1x 1.2x 1.5x 1.75x 00:00 00:00 1x AI-generated voice