Isaac Stone Fish: Why Isn’t Beijing Doing More to Constrain North Korea?

This program is part of the 2017 CHINA Town Hall, one of over 80 programs hosted by local partners across the United States.

As tensions continue to grow between Washington and Pyongyang, understanding China’s role in enabling or constraining its neighbor is more important than ever. In the lead-up to President Trump’s first trip to China, Isaac Stone Fish talked about China’s relationship with North Korea, examining its interests there and outlining what leverage Beijing has over Pyongyang, as well as examining how the Sino-North Korean relationship affects Sino-American relations.

Following Mr. Stone Fish’s presentation, the audience tuned in to the CHINA Town Hall webcast featuring Ambassador Susan Rice, former national security adviser and U.S. ambassador to the UN, in conversation with NCUSCR President Stephen Orlins.

Bio:

Isaac Stone Fish is an international affairs journalist and a senior fellow at the Asia Society in New York City, on sabbatical from Foreign Policy Magazine. While at Foreign Policy, he was the publication’s Asia Editor, managing coverage of the region and writing about the politics, economics, and international affairs of China, Japan, and North Korea. Formerly a Beijing correspondent for Newsweek, Mr. Stone Fish spent seven years living in China prior to joining Foreign Policy. He has traveled widely in Asia and in China, visiting every Chinese province, autonomous region, and municipality. His views on international affairs are widely quoted, in both western and Asian media.

Mr. Stone Fish is a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied Chinese literature. He is a fluent Mandarin speaker, a Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum, a Truman National Security Project fellow, and a non-resident senior fellow at the University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute. While in Beijing, Mr. Stone Fish served on the board of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of China and was an avid runner. In his spare time, he is writing a novel on North Korea.