Nixon in China: Did We Get China Wrong?
Study Nixon’s strategic opening to Beijing in 1972 and how it shaped U.S.-China relations today.
Are the U.S. and China heading for a new cold war? With President Xi Jinping tightening his grip on power, China has positioned itself to expand its influence all across Asia and into the West. In response, the Trump Administration is rolling out a new Asia grand strategy to counter China’s militarization and expansionism.
But for the U.S. to compete effectively with a “revisionist” China, it is critical that American strategists develop a deeper understanding of how China’s strategy and statecraft has developed in the modern period. This one-week course will examine the goals and purposes of China’s grand strategy – and, more specifically, its “dream” of “great national rejuvenation.”
In this seminar, students will explore major continuities and discontinuities in China’s approach to the modern world from the height of the Qing Empire through 2020 (a period roughly equivalent to the existence of the United States). And they will examine how current Chinese strategy seeks to shape its future.
Images courtesy White House | U.S. Department of Defense
Dan Blumenthal on Chinese Grand Strategy
This one-week course will take place in Washington, DC. It is a full-time commitment for Sunday–Friday, with required sessions in the morning, afternoon, and some evenings.
Faculty
Daniel Blumenthal
Daniel Blumenthal is the Director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on East Asian security issues and Sino-American relations. Mr. Blumenthal has both served in and advised the U.S. government on China issues for over a decade.
Dan Blumenthal
Dan Blumenthal is the Director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on East Asian security issues and Sino-American relations. Mr. Blumenthal has both served in and advised the U.S. government on China issues for over a decade.
From 2001 to 2004, he served as senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the Department of Defense. Additionally, he served as a commissioner on the congressionally-mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission since 2006-2012, and held the position of vice chairman in 2007. He has also served on the Academic Advisory Board of the congressional U.S.-China Working Group. Mr. Blumenthal is the coauthor of An Awkward Embrace: The United States and China in the 21st Century (AEI Press, November 2012).
He holds a B.A. from Washington University, an M.A. from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and a J.D. from Duke Law School.
Download the Full Syllabus
Preview the Syllabus by Week/Session
Xi Jinping & the China Dream
Readings:
- Dan Blumenthal, “Introduction” and “Big Ambitions,” The China Nightmare (forthcoming)
- Excerpt from “Xi Jinping’s Report at the 19th CPC National Congress,” Xinhua, November 3, 2017
- Peter Mattis, “The Party Congress Test: A Minimum Standard for Beijing’s Intentions,” War on the Rocks, January 8, 2019
- Willy Wo-Lap Lam, “The Agenda of Xi Jinping: Is the Chinese Communist Party Capable of Thorough Reforms?” Routledge Handbook of the Chinese Communist Party (London, UK: Routledge, 2018)
- Christopher Ford, “Realpolitik with Chinese Characteristics: Chinese Strategic Culture and the Modern Communist Party-State,” Strategic Asia 2016–17: Understanding Strategic Cultures in the Asia-Pacific (Washington, DC: The National Bureau of Asian Research, 2016)
Discussion Questions:
- The “China dream”: What does it mean? What is the CCP’s grand strategic objective?
- Does the “China dream” represent a break with past Chinese grand strategy or a continuation of it?
- How does Xi Jinping envision China achieving its strategic objectives?
- How has Xi’s strengthening of the CCP impacted strategy?
Why Global Centrality?: The Historical Legacy
Readings:
- Dan Blumenthal, “China: The Imperial Legacy,” Rise of the Revisionists: Russia, China, and Iran, ed. Gary Schmitt
- Odd Arne Westad, “Chapter 2: Imperialisms,” Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750, 53–86
- William C. Kirby, “The Internationalization of China: Foreign Relations at Home and Abroad in the Republican Era,” The China Quarterly, no. 150 (June 1997), p. 433–58
- Chen Jian, “Introduction,” Mao’s China and the Cold War, p. 1–16
- Henry Kissinger, “Chapter 4: Mao’s Continuous Revolution,” On China, p. 91–112
- Margaret MacMillan, “Chapter 9: The Polar Bear,” Nixon and Mao: The Week that Changed the World, p. 124–45
Discussion Questions:
- How did China under the Qing understand itself in relation to its various neighbors—the Mongols, East Eurasians, Vietnam, and Korea? What policies did it pursue toward those neighbors? What was “Sinification”?
- What would it mean to “reunify” the Qing Dynasty empire? How successful has China been in reconstituting its historical holdings?
- Is China’s imperial mindset compatible with the Westphalian system of international relations based on “sovereign equals”?
- How did Mao understand China’s strategic situation post-WWII? How did he respond to that situation? What were his strategic objectives? How did he use alliances to achieve his objectives?
- In what ways has China become a modern nation-state? In what ways is it still a premodern civilization/empire?
Mao, Cont’d | Deng’s National Rejuvenation
Readings:
- Ezra F. Vogel, “Chapter 9: The Soviet-Vietnamese Threat, 1978–1979,” Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China
- Excerpts from Henry Kissinger, On China
- “Chapter 13: ‘Touching the Tiger’s Buttocks,’” p. 340–76
- “Chapter 17: A Roller Coaster Ride Toward Another Reconciliation: The Jiang Zemin Era,” p. 447–86
- Yasheng Huang, “How Did China Take Off?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 26, no. 4 (Fall 2012)
Discussion Questions:
- How did Deng Xiaoping understand China’s strategic situation? How did he respond to that situation? What were his strategic objectives?
- What was “reform and opening”? What did Deng hope to achieve with this policy?
- In what ways has China become a “post-modern,” globalized nation? In what was does it remain a modern nation-state? An empire?
- Are Deng’s changes reversible? Is it possible to de-globalize China?
Deng, Cont’d | The Recentralization of Dictatorship
Readings:
- Joseph Fewsmith, Chs.1 and 2, China Since Tiananmen: The Politics of Transition (Cambridge University, 2018)
- Daniel Hartnett, “The ‘New Historic Missions’: Reflections on Hu Jintao’s Military Legacy,” Assessing the People’s Liberation Army in the Hu Jintao Era, Strategic Studies Institute and US Army War College Press, April 2014
- Willy Lam, “The Maoist Revival and the Conservative Turn in Chinese Politics,” China Perspectives, No. 2 (2012)
- Document 9: A ChinaFile Translation, November 8, 2013
- Derek Scissors, “Deng Undone: The Costs of Halting Market Reform in China,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2009
Discussion Questions:
- Why did the CCP end its policy of reform and opening?
- Is there a unique Leninist Party approach to the world? Is the CCP capable of reform which could enable it to tackle the challenges of the 21st century?
- How do Chinese leaders today understand China’s strategic situation? What internal threats do they see? What is their perception of the U.S.?
Implications for America
Readings:
- Michael Pillsbury, “The Sixteen Fears: China’s Strategic Psychology,” Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, October–November 2012
- Ashley J. Tellis, “Overview,” Strategic Asia 2019: China’s Expanding Strategic Ambitions, NBR, January 29, 2019
- Dan Blumenthal and Nicholas Eberstadt, “China Unquarantined,” National Review, June 2020
Discussion Questions:
- How have Xi and the CCP responded to their strategic environment? What actions have they taken toward internal threats, their neighbors, and the U.S.?
- What continuities and discontinuities do you see with China’s strategy, past and present? In what ways is it still acting as an empire? A nation-state? A globalized economy?
- What are the strategic implications of China’s grand strategy for the U.S. and its allies?
