What Americans Need to Understand About China | The Ezra Klein Show

You can’t understand China today without understanding its president, Xi Jinping. Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has doubled down on communist ideology and significantly consolidated his own power while transforming China into an industrial juggernaut unrivaled in the world. And Xi’s ambitions for China go far beyond that. So what does Xi want for China in the coming years? And how should the United States respond? Kevin Rudd has a unique perspective on these questions. He first met Xi in the 1980s, when Rudd was a China analyst in Australia’s foreign service and Xi was a local party official. Decades later, when Rudd was the prime minister of Australia and Xi was China’s vice president, the two men got to know each other better. And after leaving office, Rudd decided to really try to understand Xi; his latest book, “On Xi Jinping: How Xi's Marxist Nationalism Is Shaping China and the World,” is built off the doctorate he pursued at Oxford after his time as prime minister. Rudd recently finished a stint as Australia’s ambassador to the United States and is now the global president and chief executive of the Asia Society. In this conversation, Rudd explains Xi’s ideology and the forces that shaped it, his ambitions for China and strategy for achieving them, and what Xi thinks of the United States and Trump. 0:00 Intro 2:03 How Rudd went from Australian prime minister to Oxford Ph.D. 6:48 Xi Jinping’s worldview 18:18 Xi’s political ascent 28:02 Anti-corruption campaign 32:13 Tiananmen as a turning point 37:05 Recent purges 55:24 The end of the growth guarantee 58:47 Managing dissent 1:07:11 How U.S. policy toward China has shifted 1:16:25 Xi’s view of America 1:23:58 Rudd on “managed competition” 1:28:34 The Taiwan question 1:40:17 Book recommendations Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/op... Watch more on @EzraKleinShow Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-...