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.
In the fourth week of the Security Studies Program, fellows will turn to the challenge that has come to dominate American strategic planning: the rise of the People’s Republic of China. U.S. officials have labeled Beijing a “systemic challenge,” a “pacing threat,” and even a “peer adversary”—an emerging power whose military modernization, coercive diplomacy, and destabilizing behavior across the Indo-Pacific directly undermine American interests.
For the United States to compete effectively with a rising China, American strategists must understand how Chinese statecraft and grand strategy developed in the modern period. This course will explore the goals and purposes of China’s grand strategy—and especially its pursuit of “great national rejuvenation.” Fellows will trace major continuities and discontinuities in China’s approach to the world from the advent of the CCP’s victory in 1949 through today. We will consider how contemporary Chinese strategy seeks to shape China’s future.
Image: eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Wang Shibin, Zhou Chaorong and Feng Kaixuan
Dan Blumenthal on Chinese Grand Strategy
This course is part of our residential Security Studies Program. Fellows participate in morning seminars and meet national security leaders and experts over afternoon and evening sessions. Up to 16 fellows will be selected.
Faculty
Daniel Blumenthal
Dan Blumenthal is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on East Asian security issues and Sino-American relations. Mr. Blumenthal has served in and advised the US government on China issues for more than a decade.
Dan Blumenthal
Dan Blumenthal is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on East Asian security issues and Sino-American relations. Mr. Blumenthal has served in and advised the US government on China issues for more than a decade.
Before joining AEI, Mr. Blumenthal served as senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the US Department of Defense. He served as a commissioner on the congressionally mandated US-China Economic and Security Review Commission from 2006 to 2012, and he was vice chairman of the commission in 2007. He also served on the Academic Advisory Board of the congressional US-China Working Group.
Mr. Blumenthal is the author of “The China Nightmare: The Grand Ambitions of a Decaying State” (AEI Press, November 2020) and coauthor of “An Awkward Embrace: The United States and China in the 21st Century” (AEI Press, November 2012).
He has testified before Congress and has been published in The Atlantic, Commentary, Foreign Policy, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, The National Interest, National Review, The New York Post, The New York Times, Newsweek, RealClearWorld, and The Wall Street Journal, among other outlets. His broadcast appearances include C-SPAN, Yahoo News, Bloomberg Radio, and many top-rated talk radio programs.
Mr. Blumenthal has a J.D. from Duke Law School, an M.A. from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis. He also attended Capital Normal University in Beijing, China, where he focused on Chinese language studies.
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?
