The second Deltaville Great Decisions session of 2026 will take place on Friday, Feb. 6 at 10 a.m. at the Deltaville Community Association (DCA) building, 17147 General Puller Highway, Deltaville. Dr. Taiyi Sun of Christopher Newport University will present on U.S.-China Relations. All are welcome. There is no charge to attend.
U.S.-China relations have reached an all-time low, with tariffs, military modernization, pressure on Taiwan, and China’s partnership with Russia resulting in a relationship fraught with peril. Mutual suspicion and hostility mark a sharp deterioration from the engagement and cooperation that defined U.S.- China relations for the past four decades. Does President Trump have a coherent China policy, and will his tariffs on Rare Earth minerals be effective? What are America’s strategic options?
Dr. Taiyi Sun, associate professor in the Political Science Department, joined the faculty of Christopher Newport in 2017. He is originally from Hangzhou, China. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he received his bachelor’s degree in politics and government and business administration from Ripon College in Ripon, Wis., and his master’s degree in international affairs from American University School of International Service, Washington, D.C., and his doctoral degree in political science from Boston University in Boston, Mass.
His research interests include Chinese politics, disaster politics, civil society, and international political economy. More specifically, he studies how major disasters change state-society relations and the level of social capital under authoritarian rule, and how legalization could happen under a “zone of indifference” without meaningful institutionalization.
Dr. Taiyi has authored publications on Chinese politics, American foreign policy toward the Indo-Pacific, international political economy, and teaching methodology. His most recent book, The Myth of War in the Taiwan Strait, was published in 2025 by Lexington Books.
The third Deltaville Great Decisions session of 2026 will take place on Feb. 13 when Dr. Thomas Lynch presents on Multilateral Institutions.
