Panel Discussion:  Globalization

Written by AAPAAN Board Member Joseph Nah

Professor Brantley Womack, Ph.D., is the Cummings Memorial Professor of Foreign Affairs at U.Va. He is the author of “China Among Unequals: Asymmetric Foreign Relations in Asia (2010). His current research includes asymmetric international relationships, the relationship of public authority and popular power in China; provincial diversification in China; politics and foreign policy of Vietnam, and China’s relations with Southeast Asia.

Dean Harry Harding, Ph.D., is the Dean of the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at U.Va. He is the author of “The India-China Relationship: What the United States Needs to Know (2004) and A Fragile Relationship: The United States and China Since 1972 (1992). His previous positions include Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and Director of Research and Analysis at Eurasia Group. Dean Harding is also currently the Vice Chairman of the Asia Foundation and a Board of Governors of the Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

During the Signature Event’s second panel discussion, Professor Womack gave a current overview of U.S.-China relations from China’s perspective.

Despite the recent change of leadership within China, China will continue the prior policies of the previous leaders as China continues to emphasize and value “stability.” This is, in part, due to the fact that it will be “difficult to introduce new policies” and because there are a “lot of veto holders.” Specifically, China seeks economic “stability” of a “9 to 10%” growth rate in the economy while having “maximum growth as the primary target.” China does have a “labor advantage,” however, this strength may also be a weakness as “by 2050, 100 million will be over 80 years of age.”

Professor Womack summarized the pressing concern in China by asking, “Will China grow old before it gets rich?”

Dean Harding presented the policy perspective of how the U.S. looks at China.   He noted that the situation between the U.S. and China is unprecedented. For the first time ever, China is dealing with other countries with superiority while the U.S. is dealing with China as “a rising power.” In other words, China is beating the U.S. in its own game. China no longer presents an ideological challenge to the U.S. Unlike the Soviet Union, China is not a revolutionary power. Instead China has integrated itself to rest of the world. The concern for the U.S. now is that China is “beating the U.S. at our own game.” The U.S is not sure of China’s intentions as it is economically open but remains politically closed.

The U.S. has been continuing the process to integrate China into the world regimes. It has encouraged China’s participation into governing organizations such as the World Trade Organization and international treaties on arms control and human rights. At the same time, the U.S. has “hedged” itself by implementing a containment policy, also known as the “pivot,” by rebalancing and re-deploying military power in the Asia Pacific region.

Dean Harding concluded that the U.S. does not have “its act together” and the emphasis of concern should be “how well we would compete with China.” Dean Harding fears that the “economic model of the U.S. may be in decline” and that the authoritarian economic model of China could prevail.