US-China rivalry in the light of pandemics, war over the territory of Ukraine and the spectre of an imminent Chinese Takeover of Taiwan
Wednesday, October 5th, 2022
12:00pm PDT / 3:00pm EDT / 8:00pm BST
Zoom (*you must RSVP in advance to attend)
This webinar will discuss the main determinant of the trajectory of our world in the 21st century: US-China rivalry for world superpower in the light of pandemics, the first European land war since WWII over the territory of Ukraine, and the spectre of an imminent Chinese Takeover of Taiwan.
Clearly, the dominant paradigm for how the West should deal with China has shifted from strategic engagement to strategic competition, and perhaps even to concerted attempts to constrain China's further development and global influence. While there are areas where the West is correct to rebut China's practices and policies, there are two main reasons why disengagement is not in the interests of Western nations.
First, China is not going to disappear; it is a reality that the West has to find a way to coexist with. Foreign business is not going to disengage from the lucrative China market, no matter how much pressure home governments might place on it. In the financial sector, the US-China engagement amounts to some $5 trillion alone.
The second reason is that for Western nations to meet their own crucial policy objectives, they need to find ways to cooperate with China. The relationships are like a multi-dimensional chessboard where one nation may dominate in one field, but no nation can dominate in all. Competition may be suitable in some realms, but cooperation is essential to meet key global priorities. This is especially true as we come out of the post-pandemic world. Who will provide the necessary global public goods?
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Moderator: Professor Anthony Saich
Professor Anthony Saich of Harvard University is Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Daewoo Professor of International Affairs there.
Currently he is guest Professor at the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, China. He was a trustee member of the National Committee on US-China Relations (2014-2020). He also advises a wide range of government, private and non-profit organizations on work in China and elsewhere in Asia. His most recent books include 'From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party' (2021). He holds a master's degree in politics with special reference to China from SOAS.
Panelist: Professor Scott Rozelle
Professor Rozelle of Stanford University is a Senior Fellow in the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
He is Co-Founder and Co-Director of the new Stanford University Center on China's Economy and Institutions, and directs its main initiative - the Rural Education Action Project (REAP), which seeks to evaluate China's new education, health and early childhood development with a view to impact policy on this front. Fluent in Chinese, he has close working ties with Chinese collaborators and policy makers. Using primary data sources, he has conducted numerous survey-based field studies in China in collaboration with academics inside China. He is one of the top five published agricultural/development economists in the world and has received numerous awards in the US and China.
Panelist: Professor Steven Tsang
Professor Tsang is Director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies). He is also an Emeritus Fellow of St Anthony's College at Oxford University, and an Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House).
Professor Tsang regularly contributes to public debates on different aspects of issues related to the politics, history, foreign policy, security and development of the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and East Asia more generally. He is known in particular for introducing the concept of 'consultative Leninism' as an analytical framework to understand the structure and nature of politics in contemporary China. One of his latest publications is an article 'Party-state Realism: A Framework for Understanding China's Approach to Foreign Policy' in the 'Journal of Contemporary China' (2020), and his current research project is on 'The Political Thought of Xi Jinping'.