The concerns about whether the rise of China represents an opportunity for or a threat to the United States are played out most vividly on the economic front. Though an economic relationship has existed between the two countries since 1784 when bilateral trade was first established, it is only in the last 30 years, when China’s economy, growing at a scope and speed that is unprecedented in history, has impacted the global economy that the economic relationship between China and the U.S. has become a front and center issue in both countries.

Wild Grass, June 4, 1989-2009: This poem commemorates June 4th, then, today, and tomorrow.

One of the more contentious political and philosophical issues between China and many Western countries including the United States is that of human rights. More specifically, the issue is how to define human rights — in China and more broadly within an Asian historical and political context. According to Amartya Sen, in "Human Rights and Asian Values," The New Republic: "In 1776, just when the Declaration of Independence was being adopted in this country, Thomas Paine complained, in Common Sense, that Asia had 'long expelled' freedom. In this lament, Paine saw Asia in company with much of the world (America, he hoped, would be different): 'Freedom hath been hunted around the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her as a stranger and England hath given her warning to depart.'"

The May 4, 2009 New York Times contained an article headlined: "U.S. Media See a Path to India in China's Snub." The gist of the article was that after years of effort to grow their businesses in China, U.S. media companies such as Viacom, Time Warner and News Corp. have grown disillusioned by the lack of progress there and are now eyeing the region's other market of more than a billion potential customers: India. Describing it as a "stark reversal," reporter Tim Arango detailed the frustrations and obstacles U.S. media companies were experiencing in China, such as an annual cap of 20 foreign films that can be shown in theaters. Warner Bros. Pictures did not even bother to attempt to have its top-grossing motion picture of 2008, "The Dark Knight," be among those 20 films because of fears the movie's content would not make it past official censors. For U.S. media companies facing those and other obstacles, India appears to offer some advantages that China does not, such as, Arango wrote, " ... fewer government impediments for foreign media companies." The U.S./China Media Brief decided to explore some of the issues raised by the article with two members of its Experts Exchange: Professor Sam Guo and Professor Vinay Lal.