China: Watching from the Sidelines

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DATE : Mon, 07 Aug 2006 19:00:00 +0500
Entered in Database : 2006-08-07 14:00:00
length : 25098039
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China’s economic rise has led it to seek out natural resources and trade ties around the developing world, from Central Asia to South America to Africa. Some are warning of a new “Great Game” of resource competition, and others are afraid that China’s willingness to partner with authoritarian regimes might lead to the emergence of a “Beijing Consensus” to challenge the “Washington Consensus” that favors open, liberal democracy.

mc_masterchef, in a comment to Open Source, June 23, 2006

John Pomfret

Former Beijing Bureau Chief, currently West Coast Correspondent, Washington Post Author, Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China

Robert Ross

Professor of Political Science, Boston College Research Associate, Fairbank Center for East Asian Research

Thomas Barnett

Blogger, Thomas P.M. Barnett:: Weblog Senior Managing Director, Enterra Solutions Former strategist for the Office of the Secretary of Defense Former professor, Naval War College Author, The Pentagon's New Map and Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating

Extra Credit Reading

Confidential Reporter, Mideast Sees China as Counterweight to US Power, China Confidential, August 4 2006. Richard TPD, John Pomfret's new book, Chinese Lessons, The Peking Duck, July 8 2006. Jeff Kouba, China and Venezuela, Peace Like A River, March 18 2006. Chietigj Bajpaee, China Becomes Increasingly Involved in the Middle East, The Power and Interest News Report, March 10 2006. Yaakov Katz, Arms sales to China resume, The Jerusalem Post, March 2 2006. Editorial, Providing Arms: China and the Middle East, The Middle East Forum, Spring 2005. Robert Dreyfuss, Vice Squad, The American Prospect, May 2006. Willy Lam, China's Reaction to America's Iraq Imbroglio, The Jamestown Foundation, April 15, 2004.

Chris’s Post-Game Analysis

Okay, I’m hooked on Tom Two-Middle-Initials Barnett. Yes, and grateful to Messrs. Pomfret and Ross. But this Barnett is a wonder! It helps that he had a good time on little ol’ Open Source, and says so on his blog. Also that he’s as tickled as we are to put together these trans-continental dinner chats of substance and flavor. But then every word the man spoke sounded original, tested and constructive — all of it built around the notion that of course what must evolve is something like a Chinese-American partnership, in which the Chinese will do a the effective retailing of our Big Ideas about the world, ideas we seem to be too lazy or clumsy to represent very well. What does it mean that he heard a “lefty” in my questions? His thinking reminded me of Chalmers Johnson, the great China scholar and mourner of our own American Sorrows of Empire. I’m with anybody who wants to head off the madness about a war over the future with China. My crash course in Barnettismo begins tonight! Thank you, Tom. Help us get to know you.

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