The clashing geopolitical ambitions of the two states are fueling a rivalry that could be even more dangerous and consequential than the original Cold War.
The rift between the United States and China threatens to become a chasm. Barely a day passes without some tit-for-tat exchange of barbs, accusations, or actions designed to make life difficult for the other country or to trumpet the superiority of their respective political systems.
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In recent years, there has been growing bipartisan concern about the national security and economic risks posed by China. Although both Congress and the White House have taken steps to address these issues, the United States still lacks a clear and comprehensive strategy. Read more
Professor Aaron L. Friedberg testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee at the hearing “Smart Competition: Adapting U.S. Strategy Toward China at 40 Years.” Friedberg is a Counselor for the National Bureau of Asian Research and Co-chair of the NBR Taskforce on Transforming the Economic Dimension of U.S. China Strategy. He is also Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. Read Friedberg’s prepared statement below or view the webcast on the House Foreign Affairs Committee website: Hearing on Smart Competition: Adapting U.S. Strategy Toward China at 40 Years.
What are China’s grand ambitions? Did the United States get China “wrong”? And what policies should the United States adopt against a newly assertive China? What Western strategists are on the Chinese Communist Party’s reading list? Professor Aaron Friedberg and Brad Carson discuss these issues and much more in the new episode of “Jaw-Jaw.”
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New publication by Charles W. Boustany and Aaron L. Friedberg
NBR Special Report no. 76: This initial report of the Taskforce on Transforming the Economic Dimension of U.S. China Strategy examines the origins, evolution, and troubling implications of China’s “mercantilist Leninist” economic policies; considers how the U.S. should define its objectives in responding to this challenge; and explores the prospects for negotiating a satisfactory settlement to the current trade standoff.
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What is at stake in the emerging contest between Washington and Beijing is nothing less than the future prosperity and security of free societies—in Asia and around the world.
American and other Western observers often cast the China challenge in primarily material terms, as an inevitable byproduct of the country’s growing wealth and power. The basic premise here is that rising states naturally seek to expand the sphere of their influence, and dominant powers, seeking to defend their privileges, naturally oppose them.
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The United States and China are separated not only by divergent interests, some of which might be reconciled, but by incompatible visions for the future of Asia and the world.
There appears to be a growing consensus in Washington, and in the capitals of many other advanced industrial democracies, that prevailing policies towards China have failed and that an alternative approach is now urgently required. Read more
China is taking steps intended to reduce its exposure to Western economic coercion, while enhancing its leverage over others.
Deng Xiaoping‘s initiation of the ‘reform and opening up‘ programme at the end of 1978 appears in retrospect to be the decisive turning point in the history of modern China. Increasing reliance on market forces, as opposed to state planning, and deeper integration into the global economy, in place of the old policy of self-imposed isolation and virtual autarky, launched China onto a steep growth trajectory. Read more
Niall Ferguson is a prolific public intellectual who has made a career out of shattering shibboleths. At various points he has defended the achievements of the British Empire, argued that the United Kingdom’s entry into the First World War was “the biggest error in modern history,” and made the case at length that Henry Kissinger is a misunderstood idealist.
Ferguson is at it again. In a recent op-ed, he takes on what he describes as the prevailing “myth of the liberal international order.” This piece appeared in China’s Global Times, a pugnacious nationalistic tabloid published by the official People’s Daily. Read more
Japan-U.S. Program released a new monograph “The Authoritarian Challenge: China, Russia and the Threat to the Liberal International Order” by Dr. Aaron L. Friedberg, Professor of Princeton University.
Special monographs are written by distinguished scholars and experts who have been cooperating on various projects of our Japan-U.S. Program since 2008. This series of monographs aims to raise awareness of a wide range of academic and policy topics related to Japan-U.S. relations, and to provide cutting-edge knowledge by the experts.