Nina Hachigian - Debating China: The U.S.-China Relationship in Ten Conversations

DEBATING CHINA

THE U.S.CHINA RELATIONSHIP IN TEN CONVERSATIONS

NINA HACHIGIAN

EDITOR

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Debating China; the U.S.China relationship in ten conversations / edited by Nina Hachigian.
pages cm.

Summary: Experts from the U.S. and China engage in letter exchanges that illuminate the multidimensional
and complex relationship between the two countries.Provided by publisher.
ISBN 9780199973873 (hardback)ISBN 9780199973880 (paperback)
1. United StatesForeign relationsChina.
2. ChinaForeign relationsUnited States. I. Hachigian, Nina,
editor of compilation.
E183.8.C5D426 2014
327.73051dc23
2013023099

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

For my mother and father,
who were always the wind at my back

1
AN OVERVIEW OF THE U.S.CHINA RELATIONSHIP

Kenneth Lieberthal & Wang Jisi

2
THE ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP

Barry Naughton & Yao Yang

3
POLITICAL SYSTEMS, RIGHTS, AND VALUES

Zhou Qi & Andrew J. Nathan

4
THE MEDIA

Wang Shuo & Susan Shirk

5
GLOBAL ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Yuan Peng & Nina Hachigian

6
CLIMATE AND CLEAN ENERGY

Kelly Sims Gallagher & Qi Ye

7
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT

Elizabeth Economy & Zha Daojiong

8
MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS

Christopher P. Twomey & Xu Hui

9
TAIWAN AND TIBET

Jia Qingguo & Alan D. Romberg

10
REGIONAL SECURITY ROLES AND CHALLENGES

Wu Xinbo & Michael Green

James B. Steinberg

The outstanding experts who contributed to this volume have my sincere gratitude. This book would not exist without them, and they impressed me repeatedly with their insights and convictions. That they were willing to take a gamble on an experimental approach is a testament to their open-mindedness. It was my privilege to work with such a stellar group.

I am very grateful to my fine colleagues at the Center for American Progress, especially Rudy DeLeon and Melanie Hart, for their support of this project as well as their general excellence and good cheer.

A few others deserve special thanks. The Luce Foundation provided critical financial support. Elizabeth Steffey first planted the notion of expanding an earlier published exchange into a book, and Jeff Wasserstrom pointed me in the right direction with my plan. Rebecca Friendly was an invaluable help with editing and organizing. Robert Kapp went beyond his call of duty as a translator, and Ken Sofer, Yao Lei, Philip Ballentine, and Luke Herman provided able research assistance. Greyson Bryan, Michael Schiffer, David Shorr, and Peter Scoblics editorial input was enormously helpful. I am grateful to Jim Steinberg, whose views on foreign policy have consistently informed mine, for writing the conclusion.

My agent Andrew Wylie made it happen, and I want to thank David McBride and his team at Oxford University Press for embracing a new idea and then working hard to realize it.

I owe everything to my incredible parents who never failed to support me in every way. My brother Garos common sense advice hit the mark. My wonderful children inspire me so much. And Joe Day, my husband, always had incisive feedback and encouraging words when I needed them most.

NINA HACHIGIAN

On a wintry day in 2009, when new snowfall blanketed the grounds of a government-sponsored research center in Beijing, I had a lively exchange with an influential Chinese security expert, Dr. Yuan Peng. He and I debated the respective roles of America and China in global affairs at a small conference, along with other academics and former government officials. While our conclusions were radically different, we shared an understanding of the important questions to ask and a genuine desire to make the other understand why we held our point of view. Afterward, we published a version of our dialogue in the British foreign policy journal Survival. Later, a colleague suggested that our back-and-forth would make for a good book, and here we are.

The United States and China have the worlds two largest economies and military budgets. They lead the globe in Internet users and greenhouse gas emissions. They are the biggest traders, investors in R&D, and consumers of multiple commodities. Both are nuclear powers and permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council.

No bilateral relationship is more important to the future of humanity. How America and China choose to cooperate and compete affects billions of lives. We need to understand better how each side views the promise and perils of their relationship because steady, clear-eyed, workaday bonds can be a force for global stability and prosperity while intermittent, fear-based, and confrontational ties will lead to a darker future.

This volume offers a portrait of U.S.China relations in ten conversations. In the chapters that follow, a Chinese and an American policy expert discuss the rich dynamics around a facet of the Sino-American relationship, writing letters back and forth. All are titans in their fields, highly respected in academia and policy circles, and many have played important formal and informal roles in steering bilateral relations. They converse regularly with their counterparts abroad, but rarely does the public get to listen in on these conversations.

You will now have that chance. I paired the experts on nine critical topics and offered them a series of questions (printed at the front of each chapter) to guide their dialogueson economics, human rights, media, global roles, climate and energy, development, military affairs, Taiwan, and regional security. These represent the major issues, but Chinese and Americans interact on a growing list of policy questions. As Kenneth Lieberthal and Wang Jisi discuss in their overview, the relationship is expanding.