A high-risk year lies ahead in the most important bilateral relationship in the world, between China and America. The two Pacific giants enter a new era under two powerful leaders with strong agendas, privileged backgrounds but utterly different experiences of adversity and triumph. How will Xi Jinping and Donald Trump manage this vital strategic dialogue? The two men met during Trump&rsquo;s first term but their cordial relations turned sour after Covid-19 broke out in 2020. Now it falls to both of them to start again.&nbsp; Michael Sheridan is the author of&nbsp;The Red Emperor, described by the&nbsp;Financial Times&nbsp;as &ldquo;the most vivid and compelling biography of Xi to date&rdquo; and picked by that paper as recommended reading for the incoming US administration. It has been shortlisted for the Hatchards and Biographer&rsquo;s Club First Biography Prize, and translation rights have been sold in numerous languages, including Polish and Japanese. The author collected eyewitness accounts of Xi and Trump from sources who were in the room or at the table in close personal encounters. He tells how the two men failed to bond despite their heritage as sons of powerful fathers. His book tells how China and America turned into open adversaries during Xi&rsquo;s period in power since 2012 through three US presidencies, emphasising that a hawkish line on China is now established bipartisan policy in Washington. The Red Emperor&nbsp;digs deep into Xi Jinping&rsquo;s youth, childhood and early career to paint a portrait of China&rsquo;s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. Working with researcher Howard Zhang, former head of the BBC&rsquo;s renowned Chinese News Service, the author drew on reams of official publications, Xi&rsquo;s own writings, little-known recollections by relatives and friends and a seam of gossip and scandal from the wilder shores of the Chinese internet &ndash; which the book treats with due caution but lays out for the reader to judge. It is the story of Xi the man. &nbsp; Michael Sheridan&nbsp;first reported from China in June 1989 and later served as Far East Correspondent of&nbsp;The Sunday Times&nbsp;for twenty years from 1996 to 2016, based in Hong Kong and &nbsp;Bangkok. Earlier he worked for Reuters, ITN television news and&nbsp;The Independent&nbsp;reporting on wars in the Middle East, international diplomacy and European politics, with postings in Rome, Beirut and Jerusalem. He is the author of&nbsp;The Gate to China&nbsp;(2021), an acclaimed history of Hong Kong. &nbsp; Michael will be in discussion at the FCCT with&nbsp;Keith Richburg, a member of the Washington Post&rsquo;s editorial board since 2023, and a veteran observer of Xi Jinping and China. Keith&rsquo;s storied career as a foreign correspondent includes postings as the Post&rsquo;s bureau chief in Beijing and Hong Kong. He was president of the Foreign Correspondents&rsquo; Club of Hong Kong from 2021 to 2023. &nbsp; &nbsp; Copies of&nbsp;The Red Emperor will be available on the night.