As democratic governments, universities, and civil society organizations grapple with how to engage China, a central ethical question persists: should cooperation with Chinese state institutions, which tightly control everything from education to commerce, be pursued as a pathway to incremental change, or does such engagement ultimately legitimize repression and undermine fundamental freedoms? This debate, hosted in partnership with Open to Debate, brings together leading voices to examine the moral and strategic tradeoffs of engagement versus principled distance. Can working within constrained systems create meaningful progress, or are some compromises too costly to justify?