Can Cooperation on Missile Defense Avoid a U.S.-China Nuclear Arms Race? EVENT DETAILS Tuesday June 30, 2020 TIME 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. EDT LOCATION Live Online SPEAKERS Oriana Mastro, Susan Thornton, Tong Zhao MODERATOR Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian CONTACT Erin McLaughlin emclaughlin@ceip.org Despite the U.S. threat to spend China “into oblivion,” Beijing has refused to participate in arms control talks with Washington and Moscow. China categorically rejects the notion that it is arms racing and believes that growing military threats—U.S. missile defenses in particular—demand comprehensive efforts to modernize and enhance its nuclear deterrent capability. A new Carnegie report by Tong Zhao, to be launched at this event, examines the widening perception gap on missile defense and asks what the two countries can do to prevent a nuclear arms race that could undermine global security. Join us for a conversation with Oriana Mastro, Susan Thornton, Tong Zhao, and Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian as they discuss the growing U.S.-Chinese military competition and whether potentially disastrous global consequences can be averted. Speakers Oriana Mastro is an assistant professor at Georgetown University and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Susan Thornton is senior fellow and research scholar at the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale University Law School and former acting assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State. Tong Zhao is a senior fellow at the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy. Moderator Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian is the China reporter at Axios and author of the weekly Axios China newsletter.