Pitman Potter is Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of British Columbia. Potter’s teaching and research have focused on China law and policy on international trade and investment, business regulation, and human rights. Potter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Member of the Order of Canada. He is also an ordained Deacon in the Anglican Church of Canada (Diocese of New Westminster). Potter’s latest book, China and the Rules-Based International Order: Globalized Populism and Crisis Response, will appear in May from UBC Press.

Carole J. Petersen is the Cades Foundation Professor of Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law. She taught in Hong Kong for seventeen years and is a former Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong. She holds a BA from the University of Chicago, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a Postgraduate Diploma in the Law of the People’s Republic of China from the University of Hong Kong.

Moderator: Mark Levin - Director, Pacific-Asian Legal Studies, Program Professor of Law at the William S.Richardson School of Law University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

University of Hawai'i at Manoa Center for Chinese Studies

Director, Ming-Bao Yue

Associate Director, Ni Zhang

Academic Support Specialist, Adriana Choi

This talk will examine the role of American values and national interests in US relations with China. This expands upon Dr. Potter’s 2025 report to the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada on Integrating Values and Interests in Canada-China relations. As Dr. Potter did in that paper, he will rely on the principle of “complementarity” to look beyond the purported dichotomy between values and interests, focusing instead on their interdependence and possibilities for mutual reinforcement. The talk will identify opportunities for complementarity in political, economic, and social dimensions of US-China relations. The talk will then address how complementarity analysis can help build policy resilience for effective management of US relations with China in response to current and future challenges.