Carla P. Freeman is a senior expert for the China program at USIP. She specializes in China's foreign policy, China and nontraditional security issues, and U.S.-China relations.

For more than a decade, she was a member of the China studies faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she directed the School’s Foreign Policy Institute. In 2020, she held the appointment of Library of Congress Chair in U.S.-China relations at the Library's Kluge Center. While at SAIS, she also served as American director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in Nanjing, China and held various research fellowships, including at Harvard’s Fairbank Center.

Before joining SAIS, she worked on international civil society and sustainable development for The Johnson Foundation and as a political risk consultant focused on Northeast and Southeast Asia. Her career on China began with a summer job in the Science and Technology Office at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Freeman is the author of numerous monographs, edited volumes and articles.

Freeman is a graduate of Yale University, Sciences Po in Paris and Johns Hopkins University, where she completed her doctorate in international relations and China at SAIS. She was the recipient of a Randolph Jennings Peace Scholar Fellowship from USIP for research on her doctoral dissertation.

Publications By Carla

Biden and Xi at APEC: Averting Further Crisis in U.S.-China Relations

Biden and Xi at APEC: Averting Further Crisis in U.S.-China Relations

Thursday, November 16, 2023

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.;  Rosie Levine;  Ryan Sung;  Lyndi Tsering

President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke for several hours on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit this week in San Francisco. After several years of deteriorating relations — and frozen communication — between Washington and Beijing, Biden characterized the talks as the “most constructive and productive” since he came to office. But the increasing strategic competition between the two powers leaves major issues still to be addressed, such as China’s aggression in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, BRICS expansion, nuclear security, and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

Why China is Rebooting the Belt and Road Initiative

Why China is Rebooting the Belt and Road Initiative

Thursday, October 26, 2023

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.;  Henry Tugendhat

World leaders gathered in China last week for the third forum on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Xi Jinping’s massive, trillion-dollar physical and digital connectivity project. As the BRI turns 10 this year, Beijing is looking to reboot Xi’s signature foreign policy program amid criticism of the debt load it often burdens partner countries with and other environmental and human concerns. In light of these criticisms, China emphasized last week that the future of the BRI is “smaller” and “greener” projects.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

EconomicsGlobal Policy

Carla Freeman on China’s Belt and Road Initiative at 10

Carla Freeman on China’s Belt and Road Initiative at 10

Monday, October 23, 2023

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.

When the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was announced, developing countries were eager to partner with Beijing on infrastructure projects. But a decade later, “a lot of these countries are saddled with immense debt … now that the hype is over, there’s a lot more international scrutiny” of the BRI, says USIP’s Carla Freeman.

Type: Podcast

As China Looks to Reform Global Governance, How Does It Approach the U.N.?

As China Looks to Reform Global Governance, How Does It Approach the U.N.?

Thursday, September 28, 2023

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.;  Lyndi Tsering

As China has increasingly positioned itself as a global leader and foremost champion of the Global South, Xi Jinping and other top Communist Party officials have been vociferous in their critiques of the U.S.-led international order. Through a bevy of initiatives and proposals — like Xi’s Global Security Initiative — offered in recent years, Beijing has made clear that it wants to see a wholesale reform of global governance. At the June 2022 BRICS summit, for example, Xi called for a “new type of international relations” that rejects hegemony and zero-sum thinking. What this ultimately amounts to is Beijing’s effort to undermine U.S. global leadership as the U.S.-China rivalry intensifies.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

China and the Reshaping of Global Conflict Prevention Norms

China and the Reshaping of Global Conflict Prevention Norms

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.;  Bates Gill;  Alison McFarland

As China has become a more powerful and influential actor—economically, politically, and militarily—it has demonstrated growing interest in playing a larger role in international conflict prevention and influencing established norms. This report examines Beijing’s approaches and efforts in this area, focusing on three case studies: funding projects through the UN, “Sinocentric” regional organizations, and ties with Solomon Islands. The report finds that China’s efforts around conflict prevention have a coherence that requires a similarly coherent response from the United States.

Type: Peaceworks

Conflict Analysis & PreventionGlobal Policy

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