Face-Off: The U.S. vs China
FACE-OFF: US vs CHINA is an inside look at the turbulent relationship between the world's two superpowers, the two men in charge, and the vital issues that affect us all. FACE-OFF is hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jane Perlez, former New York Times Beijing bureau chief and current fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. In each episode Professor Rana Mitter, recently of the University of Oxford and now professor of modern China at the Harvard Kennedy School, chats with Jane on what’s at stake. FACE-OFF is produced in partnership with Rowhome Productions.
Episodes
January 20, 2026 • 53 mins
Jensen Huang built the company that powers the AI revolution—and he's playing both Washington and Beijing. The Taiwan-born Nvidia CEO holds the keys to artificial intelligence. But whose side is he really on? Inside the rise of tech's most important power broker.
Guest: Tripp Mickle New York Times Tech Reporter
Book Recommendations
The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip by Stephen Wit...
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January 13, 2026 • 49 mins
As Trump trashes American soft power, can China fill the void? A top Chinese academic explains why Beijing struggles to win hearts and minds and why being feared isn't the same as being loved. Plus: How American influencers are going viral in China.
Guest: Da Wei, Professor, Tsinghua University
Book Recommendations
Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future by Ian Johnson
Other Rivers: A Chinese Ed...
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January 6, 2026 • 43 mins
High-seas drama as Chinese warships hunt Filipino fishing boats in their own waters. Beijing is testing America's oldest Pacific ally with dangerous games of maritime chicken. With Philippine politics in flux, can Manila hold the line or will China fracture another US alliance?
Guest: Marites Vitug, Filipino Journalist & Author, editor-at-large for Rappler and chair of the Journalism for Nation Building Foundation
Reading Recomme...
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December 16, 2025 • 32 mins
The strangest geopolitical deal you've never heard of: Australia trades rugby league spots for an agreement not to make an agreement with China. Papua New Guinea's players get to compete Down Under and in return, China gets locked out of a strategic Pacific island. Sports diplomacy at its most serious.
Guest: Oliver Nobetau, Papua New Guinea Government Lawyer & Fellow at the Lowy Institute
Book Recommendations
Lost In Shangr...
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December 9, 2025 • 35 mins
"If I was the U.S., I would be terrified."
We report from a 1,500+ robot convention in Beijing, and an American robotics expert who's toured China's factories reveals how China is winning the robot race. From assembly lines to hospital wards, humanoid robots are everywhere—and America is falling behind.
Guest: Alberto Moel, Robotics Scientist, Professor of Practice in Finance at the University of Hong Kong
Book Recommenda...
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December 2, 2025 • 54 mins
Jake Sullivan has sat across from Xi Jinping more times than almost any American official—from Xi's rise in 2013 to their last face-off in Beijing. What's it like negotiating with the world's most powerful dictator? Sullivan reveals Xi's ego, tactics, and how a relationship that started with cautious optimism turned into open hostility.
Guest: Jake Sullivan, Former U.S. National Security Adviser for President Biden and the host ...
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November 25, 2025 • 52 mins
China is outbuilding America's navy and beating us in hypersonic missiles. Xi has purged corrupt generals to create a military machine loyal only to him. Can China's forces actually win a war? We break down the PLA's transformation from paper tiger to potential superpower.
Guest: Zhou Bo, Retired Senior Colonel in the People’s Liberation Army (https://ciss.tsinghua.edu.cn/info/CFExperts/1212)
Book Recommendations:
Should The...
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November 18, 2025 • 59 mins
China's youth were supposed to lead the nation to glory. Instead, they're lying flat, embracing "garbage time," and quietly rebelling against a system that promised everything and delivered economic stagnation. In this episode of Face-Off - our first of Season 3 (!) - we get inside the psychology of China's disillusioned generation.
Guest: Chang Che, Chinese-American Writer (https://changnche.com/)
Book Recommendations:
Spark...
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November 4, 2025 • 3 mins
In our third season of Face-Off: The US vs China, we’ll explore some of the biggest issues dividing these global powers today: Trump and Xi Jinping, AI, China’s growing military might, and also… robots.
Season 3 of Face-Off: US vs China begins Tuesday, November 18th. Join us.
Face-Off is produced in partnership with Rowhome Productions.
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October 28, 2025 • 18 mins
THE GREAT WAGER Episode 5. The break-up: Richard Nixon’s great wager reverberates from the '70s to today
While we’re preparing season 3 of Face Off, we’re excited to present an encore presentation of The Great Wager, a five-part series about Richard Nixon’s top-secret plan to go to China, befriend China, and change the balance of power in the Cold War.
This is the series finale: Episode 5.
All of a sudden, it’s less clear i...
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October 21, 2025 • 16 mins
THE GREAT WAGER Episode 4. Shared secrets: How The U.S. and China worked together to spy on the Soviet Union
While we’re preparing season 3 of Face Off, we’re excited to present an encore presentation of The Great Wager, a five-part series about Richard Nixon’s top-secret plan to go to China, befriend China, and change the balance of power in the Cold War.
This is Episode 4.
The relationship between China and the U.S. is of...
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October 14, 2025 • 17 mins
THE GREAT WAGER Episode 3. Grip and grin: When Nixon met Mao
While we’re preparing season 3 of Face Off, we’re excited to present an encore presentation of The Great Wager, a five-part series about Richard Nixon’s top-secret plan to go to China, befriend China, and change the balance of power in the Cold War.
This is Episode 3.
The news of Nixon’s trip to China is public, and he’s getting credit for pulling off such a his...
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October 7, 2025 • 17 mins
THE GREAT WAGER Episode 2: Plots and private planes: How Henry Kissinger pulled off a secret trip to China
While we’re preparing season 3 of Face Off, we’re excited to present an encore presentation of The Great Wager, a five-part series about Richard Nixon’s top-secret plan to go to China, befriend China, and change the balance of power in the Cold War.
This is Episode 2.
Nixon and his national security adviser Henry Kis...
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October 1, 2025 • 15 mins
THE GREAT WAGER EPISODE 1: Richard Nixon's 'crazy' idea: Make befriending the Chinese Communist Party his legacy
With money, power and political standing at stake, America’s relationship with China is tenuous. But it wasn’t always that way.
The Great Wager is a five-part series that tells the story of the extraordinary encounter between Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong in 1972 that brought these two countries together, the secret c...
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May 20, 2025 • 51 mins
In this bonus episode of Face-Off Jane speaks with former ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns. They discuss Ambassador Burns’ encounters with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, his meetings with American CEOs, and his travels to remote places in China.
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:
To Change China, by Jonathan D. Spence
The Private Life of Chairman Mao, by Zhi-Sui Li
Chip Wars, by Chris Miller
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April 24, 2025 • 59 mins
In a special bonus episode recorded live at the Asia Society, host Jane Perlez speaks with journalist and scholar Orville Schell about his 50 years covering Chinese leaders and their American counterparts. They attempt to answer the question: how did we get here?
Recorded live at The Asia Society on April 8, 2025
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April 1, 2025 • 40 mins
China and Russia have rarely been friendly - until now. Xi and Putin have been open about their bromance, exchanging gifts, sharing lavish dinners, even celebrating a birthday together. Are the two dictators, Xi and Putin, aiming to forge a new arrangement in the world that diminishes the traditional role of the United States? Our guest, Lyle Goldstein, former professor at US Naval War College, and now teaching at Brown University,...
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March 25, 2025 • 44 mins
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has given China five years to dominate Artificial Intelligence. He believes China must accomplish this goal in order to become the world’s tech giant. But the United States is doing everything it can to stop China from reaching its goal. Can Washington stop US and European advanced chips from reaching China? It seems not, as the arrival of DeepSeek shows. Will AI development be throttled by the Chinese g...
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March 18, 2025 • 44 mins
Back in 2015 the Chinese government declared that they would become the world leader in EVs by 2025. Major car companies scoffed. Who wants an EV? Today, China automakers have surpassed Japan, Germany and the US to become the number one exporter of cars. A record number of Chinese EVs were sold globally last year. How did China become the global leader in EVs? We’ll talk with the man who literally wrote the book on the rise of Chin...
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March 11, 2025 • 39 mins
China’s leader, Mao Zedong famously said that “Women hold up half the sky.” But these days it doesn’t feel that way in China. Unfair marriage rules, difficulties getting a divorce, barriers to owning property and many more restrictions are challenging women to speak out, and act. We’ll hear about the Chinese “leftover women” who are veering from the traditional path and about the Chinese feminists of today.
Guest: Leta Hong Finch...
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