“With God’s help, we will lift Shanghai up and up, ever up, until it is just like Kansas City,” Kenneth Wherry, then the mayor of a small town in Nebraska, proudly proclaimed in 1940. It was a glaring display of race-driven paternalistic attitudes of the 19th and 20th centuries. Nearing a century later, the United … Read more
Magazine While there are important similarities between the Biden and Trump approaches toward China, there are also stark and meaningful differences. In this Nov. 11, 2020, file photo a Chinese flag hangs near an automated parcel handling line at a warehouse for an online retailer in Beijing. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File Upon taking office … Read more
It is a critical time in the United States’ competition with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Reports this month revealed that the population of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is decreasing at an accelerating rate, Moody’s warned it may downgrade the country’s credit rating, and Italy abruptly pulled out of its flagship Belt and … Read more
Against the backdrop of growing partisan conflict over China policy, the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2024 appears, at first glance, to underscore the continuation of bipartisan efforts aimed at deterring China. However, a closer examination of the legislative process reveals two important insights: First, the assertion of bipartisan … Read more
Knowing China is more important than ever in this era of China-U.S. strategic competition, and the field of China Studies bears the responsibility to generate a broader and deeper understanding of China. Researchers have done an excellent job, especially since the establishment of China-U.S. relations in the 1970s. From the period of no access to … Read more
It is less than a year before the U.S. election in 2024, when American voters will decide on the president and the governing direction for the next four years. The current president, Joe Biden, is most likely to run as the Democratic nominee, while former President Donald Trump could still represent the Republicans. In other … Read more
The presidential election in Taiwan in January 2024 is seen as an inflection point with broad implications for Taiwan, China, and the United States. However, the election is unlikely to represent a turning point for U.S. policy toward Taiwan and China in 2024. The main reason for continuity in U.S. policy toward Taiwan and China … Read more
The recent debate between California Governor Gavin Newsom (a Democrat) and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (a Republican) could preview a future political showdown. The all-out verbal brawl between the two of the nation’s most well-known governors laid bare their profound ideological disparities across contentious topics such as crime, education, migration, and abortion. Although the spotlight … Read more
I had hoped that reading endless tributes and critiques of the work and life of Henry Kissinger would disabuse me of the felt need to add my own fragmentary comments. We all know that Winston Lord, because of his historic cooperation with Kissinger in opening relations with the People’s Republic of China, is the leading … Read more
Advertisement Nine months ago, I penned a piece analyzing how Kevin McCarthy’s ascension to the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives might turn China policy into a partisan issue. Little did I know that his ambition to build an unprecedented anti-China coalition across the aisle would be shattered by his own colleagues. After his … Read more