Under Xi Jinping, China is stepping up a crackdown on freedom of expression, including in universities, reports China expert Joshua Eisenman. Is this the beginning of a new Cultural Revolution, as some people fear? If so, we need to understand that this time it will be a Cultural Revolution of the political right, not the left, says Eisenman. "The tactics that they're using are neo-Maoist tactics, but the ideas are neo-fascist."
Tired of conventional wisdom? Check out geopolitical forecaster George Friedman. The period that began at the end of World War II was a freak, he says. "We're returning to a more normal structure in which the nation-state is dominant, international trade is intense but managed by states for their own benefit, and where this idea that the nation-state is obsolete goes away." And find out why he's bullish on Japan and thinks we overestimate China.
Thucydides's Trap is the dangerous dynamic that occurs when a rising power threatens to displace a ruling power, explains Harvard's Graham Allison. So is war between China and the United States inevitable? No, says Allison, but both nations will have to make "painful adaptations and adjustments" to avoid it, starting with U.S. policy adjustments regarding the South China Sea and the Korean Peninsula.
"Financial Times" chief foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman says, "We've reached the point where the West's grip on world affairs begins to loosen." China's economic rise is, indeed, a big reason for this shift, but how do Brexit, Crimea, and "red lines" fit into the story? What will be the effect on Southeast Asia, Australia, and Africa?
Orville Schell has been reporting on China since 1970. In this wide-ranging and insightful conversation he looks at China and the U.S. exit from TPP; North Korea; the South China Sea; China's values system (or lack of one); human rights; climate change; and more.
Why is there no NATO for Asia? After World War II, why did the United States opt for bilateral relationships with countries like Japan and South Korea? As Georgetown's Victor Cha explains, this was a "powerplay" by the Americans to contend with a "dangerous" and complex East Asia. Does this arrangement still make sense today?
What really goes on in an Apple factory in China? In this fascinating conversation, Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Devin Stewart talks to Dejian "Ken" Zeng, a grad student who went undercover at an iPhone factory in Shanghai, about 12-hour workdays, his minimalist life in the dorms, and why it's so hard to organize a labor movement in China.
A frequent visitor to China, Professor Eisenman is an astute observer of the cataclysmic changes taking place there, from the emptying-out of the countryside to the ubiquitous use of the Wechat app. What's his advice for U.S. policy? Americans should try to understand China better, and be far more realistic and modest in their objectives.
Senior Fellow Devin Stewart speaks to scholar Jeffrey Wasserstrom, of University of California, Irvine, about the current state of Chinese media, politics, leadership, and human rights. They also discuss the country's anti-corruption campaign, Chinese history, and Wasserstrom's new book "Eight Juxtapositions: China Through Imperfect Analogies."
James Hsiung gives a clear and compelling explanation of Confucius' views on harmonious human relations and how societies should be run, discussing how his thought differs from Western philosophy. He also explains why and how Confucianism has finally been rehabilitated, after almost a century of ignominy.