Andrew J. Nathan, the Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, has published the new article “The Chinese World Order” in the October 12, 2017 edition of The New York Review of Books. In the article, Professor Nathan reviews three new books on China’s global power: The End of the Asian Century: War, Stagnation, and the Risks to the World’s Most Dynamic Region by Michael R. Auslin, Post-Western World: How Emerging Powers Are Remaking Global Order by Oliver Stuenkel, and Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? by Graham Allison.
“The US should cooperate with China in those areas where common interests exist, such as nonproliferation and climate change (the position of the Trump administration notwithstanding),” Professor Nathan writes. “And the US must push steadily to open the Chinese economy on a reciprocal basis—an effort that would have been greatly aided by staying in the TPP. But in order to respond successfully to China’s growing military power, the US must hold the line firmly where strategic interests clash, such as over Taiwan and the US naval presence in the South China Sea. Above all, the US must defend international standards of human rights and freedoms more strongly than it has in recent years; it makes no sense to defer to the loudly voiced sensitivities of the Chinese regime even as China interferes more and more often in our freedoms. Competition, friction, and testing between the United States and China are unavoidable, probably for decades. To navigate this process, the US needs an accurate assessment of China’s interests, but even more of its own.”
Please click here to read Professor Nathan’s article.
