China in the 21st Century: What Kind of World Power?

The program of annual sessions on Asia will continue in 2012 with a session on "China in the 21st Century: What Kind of World Power?" The event-modeled partly on "The US in the World", held immediately after President Obama's election in November 2008-will closely follow the formal inauguration of the successors to President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in late 2012. Members of the new Communist Party politburo are by most accounts likely to be even more committed to China's still-developing role as a global power than the current leadership, but how they will interpret that role is a largely unknown quantity - one that is of enormous importance to the rest of the world as well as to China itself.

This session will appraise the direction of China's considerable and growing global influence. Like other superpowers, past and present, China pursues a foreign policy focused on its own national interest and, perhaps, pre-eminence - regional and increasingly also worldwide. Like them, too, it sees itself as a force for global stability and shared prosperity. How far do other actors in the global system, near and far, share that perception? Will China emerge as a benign superpower, and will it be perceived as such - by its neighbors, and by other powers which see their own influence slipping by comparison? What factors influence China's self-perception? In considering these questions, participants will be urged to take a realistic look at the issues that may divide China from the rest of the world-territorial disputes, competition for resources, differing views on the responsibility for meeting global environmental challenges, civil and political rights, trade and finance, weapons proliferation, etc.-but also to work together in proposing solutions based on a shared premise of global citizenship, cooperation and goodwill.

The China Seminar will have an overarching theme-China's emergence as a global power-but much of the discussion will be held in smaller, more specialized working groups. The agenda and composition of these will be carefully planned in advance, and each will be led by an established expert or experts. Potential Working Groups topics include:

Drivers of China's Foreign Policy
China's Approach to Multilateralism
China's Expansion in Latin America
Assessing China's Financial Power
Environmental Challenges in China

Date

Dec 04 - Dec 09, 2012

Session no.

Session 501

Content overview

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Session Schedule
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Session Report
Session Report: China in the 21st Century: What Kind of World Power?
Session Document
Expert Recommendations for Chinese and International Policy Makers

Faculties

Guy de Jonquières

Senior Fellow, European Center for International Political Economy; former chief Asia Commentator and World Trade Editor of the Financial Times, London

Jacques deLisle

Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law & Professor of Political Science; Director, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania Law

Theresa Fallon

Senior Associate, European Institute for Asian Studies EIAS, Brussels

Viorel Isticioaia-Budura

Managing Director for Asia, European External Action Service, Brussels

Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt

China Advisor and North East Asia Project Director, International Crisis Group, Beijing

Bo Peng

Vice Dean, School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai

Orville Schell

Director, Center on US-China Relations, Asia Society, New York, NY

Bong-kil Shin

Secretary General, The Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat; former Ambassador for International Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Seoul

Kuniko Suzuki

Senior Fellow, Okazaki Institute, Tokyo

Takashi Terada

Professor of International Politics and Asia-Pacific Studies, Doshisha University, Kyoto

Gudrun Wacker

Senior Fellow, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin

Jiapeng Wang

Chief Editor Video and TV Producer, Caixin Media, Beijing

Hu Yong

Associate Professor, Communication and Journalism School, Peking University, Beijing

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