Jisi Wang and David Lampton were panelists in a discussion on October 26 titled, "Same Bed, Different Dreams: Chinese and American Perceptions of Superpower Responsibilities." The talk was part of the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center's "Responsibilities of a Superpower" series.
David Lampton is the director of Chinese Studies at The Nixon Center and a professor of China Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Jisi Wang is dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University and director of the Institute of International Strategic Studies at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China.
Lampton began the discussion, stating that China and the U.S., as superpowers, must manage their own respective states, manage their relationship with each other, and cooperatively work to manage the international system.
"The first obligation of any state is to manage itself," according to Lampton. How China governs itself, being roughly the size of the U.S. and contributing 22% of the world's population, is a matter of global importance. "When China has not been governed well, the rest of the world has suffered," Lampton said. Poor governance has resulted in overflows of immigration, world economic problems, and the interference of outside powers. Being in a similar position of power, the U.S. has a related effect on the world when it is governed poorly. States must manage themselves, Lampton noted, before they can adequately manage their foreign relations.
Lampton also maintained that the relation between China and the U.S. is highly significant because of those countries' potential military power and economic weight. China-U.S. relations are difficult, he said, because traditionally, dominant powers do not necessarily want to cede power or influence to rising powers. Despite this difficulty in maintaining balance, Lampton believes that thus far, China and the U.S. have maintained successful foreign policies toward one another. The U.S. has made room for China on the global system while still protecting its own interests, and China has played reassuring roles in international political organizations.
In terms of both countries cooperating to help manage the "very complicated and fragile international system," Lampton said that we are yet unable to tell how such cooperation will work out. He noted the potential for cooperation in such areas as health care (citing specific international concerns, such as the Avian Flu), global warming, energy resources, and nuclear proliferation. Foreign policy issues, he said, "aren't sciences, they're arts."
Jihi Wang, speaking next, explained that China has increasingly divergent views on policy issues. The Chinese are concerned about whether the state should focus on social welfare or economic growth, and also about what the future of China-U.S. relations will look like. Some argue that the U.S. is a security threat to China; because, as they believe, the U.S. can only tolerate China when it is weak, the country will try to stop China's growth.
Wang noted the problem, though, of how China would be able to achieve its goals if it makes the U.S., a prominent superpower, its enemy. During the Carter administration, he said, the U.S. was responsible for 22% of the global GDP; today, it is responsible for 32%. In comparison, China accounted for 1% of the global GDP, whereas today it accounts for 4%. Based on these statistics, Wang noted that China's rise did not influence the growth of the U.S. at all. The question that then results from this information is that of how long this pattern will last.
To help answer this question, and to shed light on the concern of whether or not China and the U.S. will become enemies, Wang looked at China-U.S. relations on five dimensions. On the level of the international system, Wang maintained that China has had no reservations in joining most U.S. international organizations, and moreover, has not done anything to create its own organizations to challenge those led by the U.S.
On an economic level, Wang said that China and the U.S. have a great stake in maintaining the stability of each others' economies. Referencing again the statistic that China comprises only 4% of the global GDP, Wang noted that China is still far from challenging U.S. supremacy.
Politically, according to Wang, the U.S. will continue to be suspicious of long-term Chinese intentions if China remains a socialist state. Despite this suspicion, he pointed out that U.S. and Chinese ideologies are still far more similar than, for example, those of the U.S. and the Taliban, and thus should not significantly contribute to problems between China and the U.S. Similarly, the military arena should not pose a significant threat to China-U.S. relations, Wang said. China's military expenditure is one tenth of that of the U.S.
In contrast to all of these areas, the domain that that is most problematic for Chinese-American relations, Wang explained, is that concerning the Asia-Pacific region. Countries in this region see the U.S. as very distant, while the U.S. sees itself as very near and as a significant player in the Asia-Pacific. The U.S., then, does not want to see China as a rising power in this region, and therein will probably lay the most significant obstacle to cooperative Chinese-American relations in the future.
Hopefully with a mind to stem these obstacles, the leaders of China and the U.S., Wang said, "are putting emphasis on domestic policies and they are getting to know each other much better. This paves the way for more stable U.S.-China relations."
Lampton and Wang's remarks were followed by questions and comments from the audience, and Hamilton Professor of Government Cheng Li served as moderator for the discussion. The talk was sponsored by the Levitt Center and the Edwin Lee Fund in Asian Studies.
-- by Sarah Lozo '06
