SIX-WAY TALKS

10 YEARS AFTER LAUNCH, SIX-WAY TALKS REMAIN EFFECTIVE TOOL TO DENUKE NORTH

Yonhap, August 27, 2013

SEOUL. Aug. 27 (Yonhap) -- Ten years after the six-party talks' launch, the multilateral dialogue has fallen short of disarming North Korea, but the now long-stalled talks are still seen as an effective tool to denuclearize the communist country, analysts said Tuesday.

On Aug. 27, 2003, six nations - the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan -- opened their first negotiations in Beijing in multilateral efforts to end the North's nuclear program, deemed a security threat to the region.

The advent of the six-party talks followed escalating security concerns surrounding the reclusive North's growing nuclear capacities.

Amid rising U.S. allegations that the North started an illegal enriched uranium weapons program, the North withdrew in January 2003 from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, an international treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, triggering anxieties among neighbors over the North's nuclear ambitions.

Washington's previous attempts to denuclearize the North also ended in failure when the North defaulted in 2002 on the Agreed Framework, under which the North agreed in 1994 with the U.S. to freeze its plutonium-producing nuclear facilities.

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THE SHANGRI-LA DIALOGUE SEEN BY CHINA

CHINA MEDIA: SHANGRI-LA DIALOGUE

BBC News, June 3, 2013

Media and experts discuss territorial tensions and US military deployments in Asia following a security conference in Singapore, while the Hong Kong press note a rift among the pro-democracy camp ahead of the 4 June vigil.

Global Times expresses disappointment at US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel's declaration at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that the US will redeploy 60% of its fleet and overseas-based air force to the Asia-Pacific region by 2020.

It says his remarks have spoiled the atmosphere ahead of a key summit between the Chinese and US presidents later this week.

"The military redeployment is a self-deceiving and misguiding effort to check and balance China. This is also an embodiment of the fact that the US is nearly exhausted when it comes to dealing with China's rise," it says.

China Daily also criticises Mr Hagel's "unwarranted accusations" on Chinese state-backed cyber-attacks.

"Compared with China's consistency, the US is sending a mixed, and even confusing, message... The US defence chief should be told that such unconfirmed allegations neither help solve the issue, nor help build strategic mutual trust between the two countries," it says.

In Global Times, Han Xudong, a professor at the National Defence University, says "Western" media "hype about China's growing military power and the US' military redeployments serves multiple ulterior motives including helping the US to export more arms as well as build a US-led security system in Asia-Pacific.

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CHINA AND THE WORLD ORDER

WORLD EYES CHINA'S COEXISTENCE STRATEGY

Liselotte Odgaard

Asia Times, May 29, 2013

China is no longer merely a passive recipient of the world order, but it has become a key factor in determining the foreign and defense policy choices that are open to other international actors.

Beijing seems to have positioned the country as a global great power in a political sense. It has achieved this position by means of a strategy of coexistence that was recently reiterated in the Chinese defense white paper. This strategy is designed to change the context for other states' international behavior without promoting a completely new world order.

Instead, China's version of world order is founded in a revised interpretation of the existing UN system, invoking the principles of absolute sovereignty and non-interference. It is an interest-based order designed to protect China against overseas interference and maintain international peace and stability without any obligations for extensive cooperation.

Beijing seeks to influence the context more often than directly shaping the behavior of other international actors. This coexistence strategy does not require economic and military capabilities at US levels to exercise this type of influence, because it relies on the persuasiveness of its version of world order as an advantage for others without promoting a China-centric model of interaction.

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CHINA: THE NEW FOREIGN POLICY TEAM

FOCUS OF CHINA’S FOREIGN POLICY

Jabin T Jacob

The New Indian Express, March 25, 2013

The first annual session of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) in China has just ended with the ‘election’ of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang as President and Premier respectively and approval of a new cabinet of ministers. Despite the NPC’s largely rubber-stamp role — candidates approved by Congress were pre-selected by the Chinese Communist Party — the first sitting of the NPC was important because, among other things, it announced the line-up of China’s new foreign policy team.

It is important to note that major foreign and security policy initiatives are the preserve not of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) as part of the Chinese government but of the Communist Party. As General Secretary, Xi Jinping directs foreign policy through a body which comprises representatives not only from the MFA but also from the military and the departments and ministries handling national security and foreign trade.

What then are foreign policy implications of this leadership transition in China?

First of all, Xi might wield considerably more influence in foreign and security policies than Hu Jintao. For one, as the scion of a prominent Communist Party family, he has long-standing personal links with many of China’s present crop of leaders — both civilian and military — who are similarly the children of former senior Party officials. These bonds, particularly in the PLA, have ensured that Xi has the strong backing of the armed forces, considerably strengthening his foreign policy hand.

For another, by securing the appointment of a Vice-President, Li Yuanchao, who is not a member of the Party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee — in effect, the collective of seven people that rules China — the Presidency again has relatively more influence in foreign policy than was the case in the Hu Jintao regime.

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CHINA AND NK’S SANCTIONS

CHINA COMMITTED TO ENFORCING NORTH KOREA SANCTIONS, U.S. SAYS

Bloomberg News

Bloomberg, March 22, 2013

China is committed to making sure United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea have an impact, a U.S. Treasury official said after meeting with Chinese officials in Beijing.

The U.S. believes that China sees the North’s recent actions as a threat to its interests, David Cohen, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, told reporters today. He was referring to a nuclear test the North conducted in February and Security Council sanctions that were imposed in response.

“We have sensed in our meetings yesterday and expect as well today that the Chinese government is fully committed to implementing this resolution in a way that gives it real effect,” Cohen said. “The Chinese government is looking at what’s been happening in North Korea recently as threatening the stability of the peninsula in a real way that implicates Chinese interests.”

China and the U.S. worked together to craft a resolution that imposing tougher sanctions on North Korea at the UN Security Council this month after the nuclear test. China is the North’s biggest trading partner and diplomatic ally.

An editorial in the state-run Global Times newspaper published in February, after the test and before the sanctions, said China must give the North a “friendly warning”

“We must not join the camp of the U.S., Japan and South Korea, or actively cooperate with the U.S.-led sanctions against North Korea,” the editorial said. “To do that would be extremely stupid strategically.”

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CHINA: A MORE ASSERTIVE FOREIGN POLICY?

CHINA’S NEW FOREIGN TEAM WILL REFLECT RISING TENSIONS WITH U.S., JAPAN

William Wan

The Washington Post, March 16, 2013

BEIJING — China has appointed two men to its top foreign policy positions who have devoted their careers to China’s relations with the United States and Japan, reflecting in part the rising tensions with both countries, according to former diplomats and foreign policy experts.

Saturday’s announcement elevated Yang Jiechi — China’s current foreign minister and former ambassador to the United States — to state councilor, the nation’s highest-ranking official on foreign policy, and made Wang Yi, former ambassador to Japan, the new foreign minister.

For years, China’s foreign policy has been dominated by a sometimes uncoordinated mix of leaders within China’s military and its ruling Communist Party. Some had hoped China’s next generation of foreign policy leaders would help strengthen the relatively weak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, providing a central coordinating point internally as well as better access to decision-makers for other countries’ diplomats.

But neither Yang nor Wang has a seat on the party’s powerful Politburo, meaning they, like their predecessors, will continue to be outranked by at least 25 other leaders, who will drive most of the policymaking.

In the most recent demonstration of that dynamic, many within the party say China’s new leader, Xi Jinping, has taken the lead on a task force dealing with a territorial dispute with Japan over a small group of rocky islands that has flared tempers in both countries.

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AUSTRALIA AND INDIA

BALLAST FOR AUSTRALIA-INDIA RELATIONS

Ramesh Thakur

The Japan Times, March 4, 2013

CANBERRA – Based on common colonial links and political systems, Australia’s relations with India should be close and comfortable and those with China contentious. For example, Indian contingents fought alongside the ANZACs at Gallipoli that is so central to the founding myth of Australian (and New Zealand) identity.

In fact, compared to the substantial and mutually beneficial relations with China, Australia has had sparse and troubled relations with India.

With India’s history of opposition to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and its refusal to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the nuclear irritant to the bilateral relationship assumed a symbolic importance out of proportion to the objective dimensions of the problem. Each side was firmly convinced of its own intellectual and moral rectitude and therefore smugly contemptuous of the other. The stark reality that India today matters more than Australia has provided the strategic rationale for Canberra to modify a key and long-standing plank of its anti-nuclear policy.

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BRICS AND MULTILATERALISM

MULTILATERALISM IN A MULTIPOLAR WORLD

Andrew Sheng

The Star, March 2, 2013

Who has that vision of global public responsibility?

After the Chinese New Year holidays, I visited Rio de Janeiro for a conference to discuss the state of the global economy.

I last visited Brazil in 1986, when the whole of Latin America was suffering terribly from the Latin American debt crisis. Today, Brazil is the B in the BRIC economies, with a population of over 190 million population, the fifth largest in the world, with nominal GDP of US$2.5 trillion, 7th largest in the world. There is quiet confidence in air, especially since Brazil's largest neighbour, Argentina, has once again gone back to recession due to mismanagement.

In fact, other than Asia, which has benefited from the rise of China, India and South-East Asia (particularly Indonesia), Latin America is increasingly an important emerging region. Within Latin America, the Pacific countries, such as Chile, Colombia and Peru are emerging as growth leaders, moving to 5% annual growth because of their openness to trade and ability to increase domestic investments.

What is most remarkable is the growth in international trade between the leading Latin American countries with China. In 2000, China moved from 36th place and 35th place in trade with Colombia and Venezuela respectively to 2nd largest trading partner with both countries. Today, China is the largest export market for Brazil, Chile and Peru, so there was no doubt how keen Brazilians are to learn about China.

As one of the members of G20, Brazil has been an important supporter of multilateralism, since free trade has been seen as beneficial. But there are subtle changes in their views on capital flows. Large inflows of short-term capital have driven the Brazilian real upwards, and while commodity exports have benefited from a strong real, manufacturing exports are affected. Brazil is watching closely whether a global currency war will emerge, particularly if there are major moves in the yen and East Asian currencies.

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TENSIONS OVER THE SENKAKU/DIAOYU ISLANDS

CHINA’S SENKAKUS OPERATIONS OVERSEEN BY PARTY TASK FORCE LED BY XI

Kenji Minemura

The Asahi Shimbun, February 4, 2013

BEIJING--China’s response to the Senkaku Islands dispute is now under the direct command and coordination of a top-level task force of the Communist Party of China, led by General Secretary Xi Jinping.

A source close to the Communist Party said the creation of the new task force, said to be modeled after the U.S. National Security Council, means that the dispute has become one of the most important issues for China along with reunification with Taiwan and others.

Tensions between Japan and China are mounting over the five uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

Military sources told The Asahi Shimbun that the two countries scrambled fighter jets several times on Jan. 19, although no announcements were made publicly.

Two Jian-10 fighters took off from an air base outside Shanghai and followed a U.S. airborne warning and control aircraft, which carries a surveillance system for tracking other planes, north of the Senkaku Islands at a close distance, the sources said.

Two F-15 fighters of the Air Self-Defense Force then took off to counter the Chinese move, the sources said.

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THE US AND CHINA

OBAMA STILL SEARCHING FOR RIGHT TONE WITH CHINA

Hannah Allam / McClatchy Newspapers

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 27, 2013

WASHINGTON -- China may be the centerpiece of the Obama administration's second-term foreign policy agenda, with U.S. strategists trying to avoid entanglement in Syria or Mali in order to stay focused on a vision of reasserting the American presence in Asia.

But getting sucked back into Middle East and North African conflicts isn't the only risk to the administration's so-called "Asia pivot": The United States still hasn't found the right tone for its dealings with China, say analysts who specialize in Asia-Pacific issues.

Analysts say the United States remains too involved in the region's territorial disputes, especially as it helps nations organize into an anti-China bloc in talks over contested islands in the South China Sea that are of little or no strategic value. Elsewhere, the American administration still has to win over nations that are reluctant to risk the economic punishment of being seen as allied with a U.S. strategy to constrain China's rise.

"If you stand still in Asia, you're going to fall behind the rise of China," said Robert S. Ross, a professor of Chinese foreign policy at Boston College. "We're not going to stand still, but we can improve our rhetoric and disentangle from these territorial disputes."

Mr. Obama, who's sometimes called the "first Pacific president" because of his childhood years in Indonesia and his upbringing in Hawaii, clearly has the political will to make Asia the focus of U.S. policy. More than half of American naval assets are deployed in the region, the administration has signed fresh defense agreements with Asian partners and there's been a marked increase in high-profile U.S. state visits to promote trade and diplomacy.

In November, Mr. Obama made a historic trip to the former pariah state of Myanmar, his fourth high-profile visit to Asia in as many years, and his secretaries of state and defense, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Leon Panetta, have been frequent visitors, as have numerous more junior diplomats and defense officials.

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JAPAN AND THE DIAOYUTAI

ABE SAYS CHINA MADE 'WRONG' MOVES OVER TERRITORIAL DISPUTE

Press Trust of India/Tokyo

Business Standard, January 11, 2013

Japan's hawkish new Premier Shinzo Abe today said China was "wrong" in intentionally allowing Japanese nationals and businesses to be harmed over the raging East China Sea row to achieve its "political goal".

"It was wrong as a country responsible to the international community to (allow) damage to Japanese- affiliated companies and Japanese nationals in order to achieve a political goal," Abe said at a press conference, commenting on last year's anti-Japanese riots triggered by a territorial row over the East China Sea islands.

Abe's comments came as the Japanese Cabinet approved a stimulus package that includes extra defence spending.

The relationship between Japan and China has been strained since Japan purchased some of the Senkakus Islands, known as Diaoyu in China, in September last year. The row caused anti-Japanese protests across China, some violent.

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JAPAN AND THE DIAOYU/SENKAKU

JAPAN SUMMONS CHINESE ENVOY OVER DISPUTED ISLANDS ROW

The Japanese government has summoned China's ambassador to protest four Chinese maritime surveillance ships that spent about 13 hours in waters near disputed islands claimed by both countries.

The Telegraph, January 9, 2013

The uninhabited outcroppings in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan.

Tensions over the tiny islands intensified after Tokyo bought them from their Japanese private owners in September, prompting Chinese to hold demonstrations and boycott Japanese products.

The heightened tensions comes as Japan announced it plans to spend $2.1 billion on its military over the next few months as part of a huge stimulus package.

The cash is in addition to the regular military spending for 2012-13 and is separate from a boosted budget request for next fiscal year that ruling party policy makers called for on Tuesday.

"We will request 180.5 billion yen to be allocated to military spending from a stimulus package," a defence ministry spokesman told AFP, adding that some of the cash will be used to buy PAC-3 surface-to-air anti-ballistic missile systems and modernise four F-15 fighter jets.

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ABE AND CHINA-JAPAN ROW

TO JAPAN-CHINA ROW, ADD ONE POTENTIAL PROVOCATEUR

Mark McDonald

IHT Rendezvous, December 19, 2012

HONG KONG — The idea that armed conflict could break out in the Pacific over a handful of godforsaken islands is almost unthinkable, not only for the violence involved but also for the potentially calamitous economic and political repercussions. Political leaders, military officials and security analysts can barely utter the W-word out loud for fear they might be unbottling the genie.

But the dispute between China and Japan in the East China Sea took another harrowing turn last week when a Chinese plane overflew the islands and Japan scrambled some fighter jets in response. The Japanese Defense Ministry said it was “the first known violation of Japanese airspace by a Chinese plane” in half a century, as my colleague Hiroko Tabuchi reported.

Naval vessels from both countries have been patrolling the islands, which are known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Bilateral tensions have been high enough that a bumping or brushing incident at sea — even an accidental one — might well lead to actual fighting.

Sheila Smith, senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the dispute “has left both countries deeply suspicious of each other, and public antipathy on both sides of the East China Sea is running high.” In China there have been nasty anti-Japanese riots.

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XI JINPING’S HARD TASKS

LEAVING HARD TASKS TO NEW LEADER

The Japan Times, November 11, 2012

China is now in the final stage of preparation for its leadership transition, as the once-every-five-years national congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is in session with some 2,300 delegates attending.

Under outgoing President Hu Jintao, who led China for the past 10 years, the country has achieved rapid economic growth, surpassing Japan in 2010 to become the world's No. 2 economy. During Mr. Hu' tenure, China's economy grew nearly four times in size and its per capita gross domestic product in 2010 was 3.2 times the 2002 figure. Current per capita GDP is estimated at $5,000. This is a great achievement.

Mr. Xi Jinping, expected to be elected China's new leader at the end of the party congress, will inherit enormous side effects caused by China's economic development as well as its achievements.

To maintain its legitimacy, the CCP must continue to increase the economic fruit for people. But this process has produced problems such as a growing gap between rich and poor, widespread corruption, and environmental disruption. China, with a population of 1.34 billion, has significant ethnic problems. China's new leadership clearly will confront great challenges.

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NATIONALISM IN ASIA

ASIAN NATIONS SHOULD BEWARE OF THE 'RIOT' IN PATRIOTISM

The China Post, September 18, 2012

Nationalism and protectionism are two of the most attractive qualities during dire economic times. European far-right political parties enjoyed widespread electoral success in the wake of the eurozone debt crisis.

Even in a country in need of focus and economic revival such as the post-lost decade, post-financial crisis and post-March 11 earthquake Japan, long-term nationalist firebrand Shintaro Ishihara mustered enough support to force the government to distract itself from economic reform and tackle a half-century-old territory dispute.

So it is not surprising to see populist and nationalistic demonstrations mushrooming across the world. In Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, protesters are rallying against the U.S. over an American-made anti-Muslim “movie.” Despite the amateurism of the video and the fact that it was made not by any U.S. government-sanctioned organization (in fact one of the film's reported makers was later questioned by U.S. police partially due to an earlier fraud conviction), protesters are targeting U.S. embassies. Demonstrators in Sudan were even urged to rally outside the German Embassy over the U.S.-made video. Violence that took place during one rally resulted in the death of four U.S. diplomatic personnel in Libya, including the ambassador to the North African country.

In cities across China, angry protesters rallied against the Japanese government's decision to “nationalize” the Diaoyutai Island by purchasing them from those believed by the Japanese to own them. The Japanese central government was forced to act after Ishihara launched a successful fundraising campaign to purchase the islands and build a shelter for vessels using the Tokyo local government's private fund. Japan's nationalization plan is aimed at stopping Ishihara's plan to escalate tension, but Chinese nationalists, of course, are not interested in the nuance of Japanese politics. Tens of thousands of patriotic protesters gathered outside Japanese embassies and consulates across mainland China, yelling anti-Japanese slogans and calling for the boycott of all Japanese goods and foods.

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DIAOYU/SENKAKU

ANTI-JAPAN PROTESTS ERUPT IN CHINA OVER ISLANDS ROW

Sui-Lee Wee and Maxim Duncan

Reuters, September 15, 2012

BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of Chinese besieged the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Saturday, hurling rocks, eggs and bottles with protests reported in other major cities in China amid growing tension between Asia's two biggest economies over a group of disputed islands.

Paramilitary police with shields and batons barricaded the embassy, holding back slogan-chanting, flag-waving protesters who at times appeared to be trying to storm the building.

"Return our islands! Japanese devils get out!" some shouted. One of them held up a sign reading: "For the respect of the motherland, we must go to war with Japan."

Protester Liu Gang, a migrant worker from the southern region of Guangxi, said: "We hate Japan. We've always hated Japan. Japan invaded China and killed a lot of Chinese. We will never forget."

As tensions escalated, and reports emerged of other protests around China, Japan said its foreign minister had cut short a visit to Australia, arriving back in Tokyo on Saturday.

The long-standing territorial dispute escalated dramatically on Friday when China sent six surveillance ships to a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea, raising tension between the two countries to its highest level since 2010.

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INDO-US RELATIONSHIP

INDIA AND US REBALANCING STRATEGY FOR ASIA-PACIFIC – ANALYSIS

Arun Sahgal (IDSA)

Eurasian Review, July 10, 2012

The construct of Indo–US relations in the Asia-Pacific region is to be seen against the backdrop of the United States increasingly looking upon India and its growing influence as an alternative to Chinese hegemony in the region. While most countries such as Australia, Japan and the smaller South-East Asian countries do hold strategic relevance for America’s Asia-Pacific strategy, it is perhaps nuclear India with its growing economy destined to leap frog in the next two or more decades that currently tops the US priority list for its regional designs.

Despite the current hiccups and comments about the relationship losing steam, the Indo-US relationship has seen greater ascendancy on every account—economic, military, and strategic. This was underscored during the recent visit of the US Defense Secretary to New Delhi and followed by the Indo-US strategic dialogue, which appear to have provided new impetus to the relationship, particularly in outlining the future US vision for bilateral defence cooperation.

Outlining his concept of the US re-balancing strategy towards the Asia-Pacific region, the US Defense Secretary explained that the American military plans to expand its partnerships and presence in the arc extending from the Western Pacific and East Asia into the Indian Ocean region and South Asia. It is within this arc that the US plans to redeploy the bulk of its naval forces including as many as six aircraft carriers by 2020. The perspective outlined also talked about combating shared challenges including ensuring open access to maritime, air space and cyber space domains as also challenges posed by radical ideologies, piracy and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, etc.1

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SENKAKUS/DIAOYUTAI

GOVERNMENT TO MAKE BID FOR SENKAKUS

China, Taiwan enraged; owner still plans to sell islets to Tokyo

Kyodo

The Japan Times, July 8, 2012

The government is preparing to buy part of the disputed Senkaku Islands from a private owner to increase its control over the chain in the East China Sea, government sources said Saturday.

Taiwan and China reacted sharply to the news, as both claim sovereignty over the islands.

The government has already started making arrangements with the owner and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which announced its own plan to purchase some of the islets in April, the sources said.

Analysts say the latest move to put the Senkakus under state control appears intended to demonstrate Japan's uncompromising stance on the sovereignty issue.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda simply told reporters that his government will deal with the issue "comprehensively."

State officials, including Noda's special aide, Akihisa Nagashima, notified the metropolitan government Friday of its plan to buy Uotsuri, the largest of the islets, as well as nearby Kitakojima and Minamikojima, according to the sources and Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara.

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CHINA AND THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

CHINA'S IRON FIST IN A VELVET GLOVE

Michael Richardson

The Japan Times, June 28, 2012

SINGAPORE — China could easily grab control of the disputed Scarborough Shoal fishing grounds in the South China Sea using its increasingly modern and powerful armed forces. Chinese naval, air and amphibious units, working in unison, already have the capability to enforce Beijing's claims of island ownership and maritime control in the northern sector of the sea, where the shoal is located just 220 km from the Philippine mainland.

China dwarfs the puny Philippine military. Yet it deliberately chose not to deploy its regular armed forces to secure the unoccupied shoal, even though the standoff with the Philippines continued for more than two months. On June 16, Manila withdrew its remaining two coast guard vessels from the Scarborough area, ostensibly because of a passing typhoon, without saying whether they would return after the weather clears.

There are several reasons for China's decision not to use warships. The Philippines is an ally of the United States and China could not be sure the U.S. would not intervene if Chinese armed forces became directly involved in a Scarborough clash and takeover.

In the past few years, China's increasingly assertive actions not just in the South China Sea, but also against Japan over disputed islands and maritime boundaries in the East China Sea, have alarmed and alienated many of its neighbors. "The last thing China wants is to see these countries and the U.S. joining hands against China," Chen Xiangyang, deputy director of the Institute of World Political Studies in the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, wrote in the online edition of China Daily on June 11.

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CHINA’S NEW DIPLOMACY

CHINA’S ROLE IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS: AN INTERVIEW WITH PROF. ZHIQUN ZHU

Kourosh Ziabari

Foreign Policy Journal, May 31, 2012

Today, most international relations analysts and experts consider China as the world’s second political and economic power after the United States. China came second in the International Monetary Fund’s 2011 ranking of countries by GDP (nominal) and is one of the main producers of agricultural products and industrial commodities and the world’s number one exporter. China is also the United States’ first trading partner, and at the same time, it’s major economic and political competitor.

The politics of China are thoroughly complicated. National interests define the limits of China’s foreign policy while some traces of opposition to the Western world in general, and the United States in particular, can always be found in China’s attitude toward international affairs.

In order to learn more about the intricacies of China’s predominantly growing economy, its foreign policy, and its relations with the United States and the Middle Eastern nations, I’ve interviewed Zhiqun Zhu, assistant professor of international relations at the Bucknell University, who specializes in Chinese politics and foreign policy and East Asian international relations.

Prof. Zhu is the author of “U.S.-China Relations in the 21^st Century” and “China’s New Diplomacy.”

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