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Atlanta, GA | Posted: April 25, 2014
Jeremiah Granden
Summary Sentence:
Zhu's comments focused on the current state of U.S./Chinese relations, risk factors that could complicate the relationship between these two powers, and how challenges on this front are best addressed.
Full Summary:
Zhu's comments focused on the current state of U.S./Chinese relations, risk factors that could complicate the relationship between these two powers, and how challenges on this front are best addressed.
Zhu FengZhu Feng, a professor in the School of International Studies at Peking University and the executive director of the Collaborative Innovation Center for South China Sea Studies at Nanjing University, spoke to Georgia Tech students and faculty about Chinese-U.S. relations and East Asian security dynamics on April 24, 2014. The talk was hosted by the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy (CISTP) and the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, with opening remarks by Nunn School Professor John Garver.
Zhu's comments focused on the current state of U.S./Chinese relations, risk factors that could complicate the relationship between these two powers, and how challenges on this front are best addressed. He claimed that U.S. and East Asian perceptions of rising China as a threat are often misguided for several reasons. For one, China’s core challenges exist in the domestic rather than the international sphere, and thus the nationalist rhetoric that surfaces around issues like the Senkaku/Daioyudao Islands dispute is driven by the leadership’s need to shore up internal political support. China’s domestic realities also limit its freedom of action on the regional and international scene. Second, China’s history is marked by cycles of growth and decline, which calls its potential to function as a long-term threat to the U.S. into question. Third, China’s assertiveness is a spontaneous consequence of its elevation to great power status and is not indicative of deeply-held revisionist ambitions. Fourth, the power disparity between China and the U.S. remains formidable. Finally, China’s increasing openness, demonstrated by its expansion of global economic ties and diaspora of Chinese students in American universities, continues to reshape its political skyline.
Zhu called for the U.S. to view China’s rise with a more balanced and realistic perspective, one that appreciates China’s constraints as a great power and understands that China will never “fall in line” with America’s agenda in the way that other East Asian powers arguably have.
Zhu Feng is a professor in the School of International Studies at Peking University and executive director of the Collaborative Innovation Center for South China Sea Studies at Nanjing University. Concurrently, Zhu serves as senior advisor to President Wang Jisi of the Center for International & Strategic Studies (CISS) at Peking University. Zhu is a leading Chinese expert on East Asian security, and his research interests include regional security in East Asia, North Korea nuclear issues, China-U.S. relations and Chinese security policy.
