CHINESE FOREIGN POLICY
Andrew Nathan
Department of Political Science
Columbia University
Purposes:

The course describes the major elements of Chinese foreign policy today, in the context of their development since 1949. We seek to understand the security-based rationale of policy as well as other factors – organizational, cultural, perceptual, and so on – that influence Chinese foreign policy. We analyze decision-making processes that affect Chinese foreign policy, China’s relations with various countries and regions, Chinese policy toward key functional issues in international affairs, how the rise of China is affecting global power relations, and how other actors are responding. The course pays attention to the application of international relations theories to the problems we study, and also takes an interest in policy issues facing decision-makers in China as well as those facing decision-makers in other countries who deal with China.

Requirements:

The course grade will be based on two take-home examinations and two essays. The essays should be 5-7 pages long and may be of the following kinds. If you wish, both of your papers can be of the same kind. For more details on the expectations attached to each kind of paper, please see the file "Essay Types Explanation.doc" on Courseworks.

(a) A critical book review. The critical essay will address two books not on the course list, relevant to the subject of the course. Please see the attached list for some suggestions, but you may also propose books that are not on the list, which you should clear with the instructor or TFs. (You can also use a book of which no more than two chapters are assigned in the course syllabus.) For ideas about books to review, you might look at the "Asia and Pacific" book review column that your instructor writes for Foreign Affairs magazine. They can be found at http://www.foreignaffairs.com/books/capsule-reviews. Your review essay should avoid summarizing the material in the books, and should offer an independent consideration of the issues the books discuss and a critique of the authors’ analyses.

(b) An explorations paper, which looks at a topic of interest to you, relevant to the subject of the course, based on published works and/or websites. We have in mind topics which are not adequately covered in the course reading, and on which you would like more information. We want to learn what information you have gathered, but we also want to know why you think the issue is important, what conclusions you have provisionally drawn from the information you have gathered and, as appropriate, what you think are the biases or inadequacies of the sources that you used.

(c) A policy paper, which recommends a policy for China in some domain or which recommends a policy toward China in some domain for some other international actor (a government, NGO, multinational organization, etc.). A policy paper should be addressed to a specific actor (e.g., president, secretary of state, members of congress), should propose policies that are feasible for that actor, and should appeal to that actor’s interests. You may wish to run your ideas past the instructor or a TF first in order to be sure that you’re addressing the various aspects that a policy paper needs to address, such as a specific policy actor, consistency with that actor’s interests, and feasibility.

Lynn White of Princeton has produced two finding aids that are useful for all these kinds of papers. "Contemporary China: A Book List" is at http://www.princeton.edu/~lynn/chinabib.pdf. A clickable list of websites, giving access to thousands of articles about China and Southeast Asia, is at http://www.princeton.edu/~lynn/chinawebs.doc.

Due dates are as follows: the first essay is due February 23; the midterm will be circulated by email and/or posted on Courseworks after class March 4 and can be handed back in class if you wish or deposited in my mailbox at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute on March 11; the second essay is due April 15; the takehome final will be circulated on the last day of class, May 4, and will be due May 11.

Grading:

To the extent possible, we arrange for your four writing assignments to be graded by different graders, which we hope helps to even out the disparities that may arise from differences among graders.

The papers are more challenging than the exams. On the papers, we view B+ as a grade that represents a sound, solid, commendable job that fulfills the assignment; the paper gives a clear, structured, and reasonable presentation of whatever it sets out to do within the terms of reference of that type of paper. The grade goes below B+ when the argument is unclear, necessary parts of the argument are missing, the research is thin, the paper is disorganized, or the presentation is otherwise flawed. It goes above B+ if the paper is in some way distinguished, original, especially thoughtful, especially persuasive, especially informative, and so on.

The exams are intended to assess whether you are doing the reading and attending the lectures. A grade of A means you answered each question accurately and fully.

The person who graded your paper or exam is identified with a name or initials someplace on the paper (near the grade, or on the front of the paper). You are welcome to speak with that person or Professor Nathan if you'd like to get more feedback on the paper. To appeal the grade, please speak to the person who graded it first and come to Professor Nathan second if you are not satisfied with the outcome of the first conversation.

Each paper and the final exam will contribute 2/7 to the course grade, while the midterm will count as 1/7.

Extension Policy:

In general, it is in your interest to complete assignments by the due date, first so that you can keep up with your work in this and other classes, and second so that you can cultivate a professional habit of turning in work on time. However, we can provide extensions of reasonable length, if needed for a good reason, for the first three assignments. Please email the instructor to ask for the extension; give the reason; and specify the date on which you intend to hand in the work, so that we can keep a record of extensions granted. The situation is different with any work still owing at the end of the semester, including the final exam. Because the registrar’s computer system requires all course grades to be submitted together by the deadline set by the registrar at the end of the semester, we have to submit a grade for each student at that time. Policies vary somewhat by school, but in general we cannot submit an Incomplete without the permission of your dean. If we don’t have all your work completed by that time, we can submit an AR (administrative referral) in some schools, UW (unauthorized withdrawal) in other schools, or a letter grade, which would be significantly impacted by missing work.

Readings:

There are no required books for purchase. Several books from which relatively long sections have been assigned have been ordered at Book Culture www.bookculture.com for optional purchase. These are Garver, China & Iran and Protracted Contest; Hachigian, Debating China; Mann, About Face; Nathan and Scobell, China’s Search for Security; Shambaugh, China Goes Global; and Shirk, China: Fragile Superpower. Two books are available only on library reserve because the assignments are too long for the library system to copy them for Courseworks, but have not been ordered at Book Culture because I guessed many of you would not want to purchase them. These are Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics and Chen Jian, Mao’s China and the Cold War. Chapters from other books, as well as journal articles, are available on Courseworks (www.courseworks.columbia.edu). Some are found in the "Library Reserves" section and some in the "Shared Files" section of the website. There are some additional materials on the Courseworks site that I used to assign but no longer assign; of course you are welcome to read those.

Quite a few course readings come from Foreign Affairs magazine. You can sign up for a one-year subscription to Foreign Affairs for $18, which comes with full archive access to the magazine’s website, by downloading and submitting the form at http://www.foreignaffairs.com/files/attachments/Student_Sign_Up.pdf.

Lecture Schedule and Readings:

January 21 & 26. WHAT DRIVES CHINESE FOREIGN POLICY? – GEOSTRATEGY, CULTURE, NATIONALISM

  • Andrew J. Nathan and Andrew Scobell, China’s Search for Security (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012), hereafter CSS, "Introduction" and Ch. 1
  • Alistair Iain Johnston, "Is China a Status Quo Power?" International Security 27:4 (Spring 2003), pp. 5-56
  • John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (N.Y.: W.W. Norton, 2001), Chs. 1-3, 10
  • Michael Pillsbury, The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower (New York: Henry Holt. 2014), Chs. 3-4
  • Robert S. Ross, "The Geography of the Peace: East Asia in the Twenty-First Century," International Security 23:4 (Spring 1999), pp. 81-118
  • Susan Shirk, China: Fragile Superpower (NY: Oxford University Press, 2007), Chs. 1, 5, 7, 9
  • Jessica Chen Weiss, Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China’s Foreign Relations (NY: Oxford University Press, 2014), Ch. 2
  • Zheng Bijian, "China’s ‘Peaceful Rise’ to Great-Power Status," Foreign Affairs 84:5 (Sept./Oct. 2005), pp.18-24

January 28. WHO RUNS CHINESE FOREIGN POLICY? – CHANGES IN CHINESE POLICY-MAKING FROM MAO TO JIANG TO HU

  • CSS, Ch. 2
  • David Shambaugh, China Goes Global: The Partial Power (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), Ch. 2

February 2, 4, 9 & 11. LIFE ON THE HINGE: PUZZLES AND TURNING POINTS

  • CSS, Ch. 3
  • Dean Acheson, "Crisis in Asia — an Examination of United States Policy," Department of State Bulletin 22 (January 23, 1950), pp. 111-118 (on Courseworks)
  • Chen Jian, Mao’s China and the Cold War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001), Chs. 1-3, 7, 9
  • Bobo Lo, Axis of Convenience: Moscow, Beijing, and the New Geopolitics (London: Chatham House and Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 2008), Chs. 3, 5, 6
  • James Mann, About Face: A History of America’s Curious Relationship with China, From Nixon to Clinton (N.Y.: Knopf, 1999), Chs. 1-6, 11-12, 16, 18
  • Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong), "On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship" (June 30, 1949), at http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-4/mswv4_65.htm

February 16 & 18. THE U.S. FACTOR AND CHINA’S GRAND STRATEGY

February 23 & 25 and March 2. CHINA IN SIX REGIONAL SYSTEMS

  • CSS, Ch. 5, 6
  • John W. Garver, Protracted Contest: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Twentieth Century (Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, 2001), Chs. 1, 2, 7-9
  • Bill Hayton, The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014), Ch. 4, 7, 8
  • Robert D. Kaplan, "The Geography of Chinese Power," Foreign Affairs (May/June 2010), pp. 22-41
  • Shambaugh, China Goes Global, Ch. 3
  • Wu Xinbo and Michael Green, "Regional Security Roles and Challenges," in Hachigian, ed., Debating China, pp. 198-220

CHINA AND KOREA

March 4 & 11. POLICIES IN THE FOURTH RING

  • Speaker, March 11: Liya Yu
  • CSS, Ch. 7
  • John W. Garver, China & Iran: Ancient Partners in a Post-Imperial World (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006), Chs. 1, 6-10
  • Jonathan Holslag, "China’s New Security Strategy for Africa," Parameters (Summer 2009), pp. 24-37
  • Jonathan Holslag, "China And The Coups: Coping With Political Instability In Africa," African Affairs (May 2011), pp. 367–386
  • Jonathan Holslag, "The Elusive Axis: Assessing the EU-China Strategic Partnership," Journal of Common Market Studies 49:2 (2011), pp. 293-313
  • Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt and Andrew Small, "China’s New Dictatorship Diplomacy," Foreign Affairs 87:1 (January/February 2008), pp. 38-56

March 23, 25 & 30. GLOBALIZATION, INTERDEPENDENCE, AND INTERNATIONAL REGIMES: CHINA’S ROLE IN THE WORLD ECONOMY, ENVIRONMENT, PUBLIC HEALTH, AND OTHER FIELDS

  • CSS, Ch. 10
  • Elizabeth C. Economy and Michael Levi, By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World (NY: Oxford University Press, 2014), Chs. 9-10
  • Andrew J. Nathan, "China’s Rise and International Regimes: Does China Intend to Join or Overthrow Existing Norms and Institutions?" (draft paper)
  • Shambaugh, China Goes Global, Ch. 4-5
  • Arvind Subramanian, "The Inevitable Superpower," and Salvatore Babones, "The Middling Kingdom," Foreign Affairs (September/October 2011), pp. 66-78, 79-88

April 1 & 6. HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOFT POWER IN CHINA’S FOREIGN POLICY

  • CSS, Ch. 12
  • Andrew J. Nathan, "The Authoritarian Resurgence: China’s Challenge," Journal of Democracy January 2015, pp. 156-170
  • Shambaugh, China Goes Global, Ch. 6
  • Zhou Qi and Andrew J. Nathan, "Political Systems, Rights, and Values," in Hachigian, ed., Debating China, pp. 43-66

April 8, 13 & 15. MILITARY MISSIONS AND MILITARY MODERNIZATION

  • CSS, Ch. 11
  • Robert Haddick, Fire on the Water: China, America, and the Future of the Pacific (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2014), Chs. 4-5
  • Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2011, Office of the Secretary of Defense, at http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/2011_CMPR_Final.pdf
  • James Steinberg and Michael E. O’Hanlon, Strategic Reassurance and Resolve: U.S.-China Relations in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014), Ch. 6

April 20, 22 & 27. THE HONGKONG, TAIWAN, XINJIANG, AND TIBET ISSUES IN PRC FOREIGN POLICY AND THE MAINLAND AND FOREIGN POLICIES OF TAIWAN (REPUBLIC OF CHINA)

  • CSS, Ch. 8, 9
  • Rémi Castets, "The Uyghurs in Xinjiang: The Malaise Grows," China Perspectives 49 (September-October 2003), pp. 34-48
  • Bruce Gilley, "Not So Dire Straits: How the Finlandization of Taiwan Benefits U.S. Security," Foreign Affairs 89:1 (January/February 2010), pp. 44-60
  • Jia Qingguo and Alan D. Romberg, "Taiwan and Tibet," in Hachigian, ed., Debating China, pp. 176-197
  • Lee Teng-hui, "Understanding Taiwan," Foreign Affairs 78: 6 (Nov/Dec 1999), pp. 9-14

April 29. CHINA AND TIBET

  • Guest speaker: Robbie Barnett, Director, Modern China Studies Program, Columbia University
  • Robert Barnett, "The Tibet Protests of Spring, 2008," China Perspectives, No. 3 (2009), pp. 6-23.
  • His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, "Strasbourg Proposal 1988," http://www.dalailama.com/messages/tibet/strasbourg-proposal-1988.
  • Melvyn C. Goldstein, "The Dalai Lama’s Dilemma," Foreign Affairs (January/February 1998), pp. 83-97

May 4. STUDENT PANEL: LONGTERM STRATEGIC CHANGE IN ASIA AND THE “CHINA THREAT”

  • CSS, Ch. 13
  • Michael Beckley, "China’s Century? Why America’s Edge Will Endure," International Security 36:3 (Winter 2011/12), pp. 41-78
  • Aaron L. Friedberg and Robert S. Ross, "Here Be Dragons: Is China a Military Threat?", The National Interest (September-October 2009), pp. 19-34
  • Evan S. Medeiros, "Strategic Hedging and the Future of Asia-Pacific Stability," The Washington Quarterly 29:1 (Winter 2005-2006), pp. 145-167
  • Robert S. Ross, "The Problem with the Pivot," Foreign Affairs 91:6 (November/December 2012), pp. 70-82
POSSIBLE BOOKS FOR REVIEW:

Charles Armstrong, Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950-1992 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013)

Dennis J. Blasko, The Chinese Army Today: Tradition and Transformation for the 21st Century, Second Ed. (London: Routledge, 2012)

Gardner Bovingdon, The Uyghurs: Strangers in Their Own Land (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010)

Richard C. Bush, The Perils of Proximity: China-Japan Security Relations (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2010)

Richard C. Bush, Uncharted Strait: The Future of China-Taiwan Relations (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2013)

Thomas J. Christensen, Useful Adversaries: Grand Strategy, Domestic Mobilization and Sino-American Conflict, 1947 1958 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996)

Alexander Cooley, Great Games, Local Rules: The New Great Power Contest in Central Asia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012)

Martin K. Dimitrov, Piracy and the State: The Politics of Intellectual Property Rights in China (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Elizabeth Economy, The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004)

M. Taylor Fravel, Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Cooperation and Conflict in China’s Territorial Disputes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008)

Aaron L. Friedberg , A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011)

Graham E. Fuller and S. Frederick Starr, The Xinjiang Problem (Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, [2003]), available at www.cornellcaspian.com/pub2/xinjiang_final.pdf

Yoichi Funabashi, The Peninsula Question: A Chronicle of the Second Korean Nuclear Crisis. (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 2007)

Melvyn C. Goldstein, The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998)

Nina Hachagian, ed., Debating China: The U.S.-China Relationship in Ten Conversations (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014)

Robert Haddick, Fire on the Water: China, America, and the Future of the Pacific (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2014)

Stefan Halper, The Beijing Consensus: How China’s Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century (New York: Basic Books, 2010)

Bill Hayton, The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014)

Jonathan Holslag, China + India: Prospects for Peace (New York: Columbia University Press,2009)

Alastair Iain Johnston, Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995)

Alastair Iain Johnston, Social States: China in International Institutions, 1980-2000 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008)

Richard C. Kagan, Taiwan’s Statesman: Lee Teng-hui and Democracy in Asia (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2007)

Rebiya Kadeer with Alexandra Cavelius, Dragon Fighter: One Woman’s Epic Struggle for Peace with China (Carlsbad, CA: Kales Press, 2009)

Henry Kissinger, On China (New York: Penguin Press, 2011).

John Kenneth Knaus, Beyond Shangri-La: America and Tibet’s Move into the Twenty-First Century (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012)

Jeffrey G. Lewis, The Minimum Means of Reprisal: China’s Search for Security in the Nuclear Age (Cambridge; The MIT Press, 2007)

Edward N. Luttwak, The Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012)

Evan S. Medeiros, Reluctant Restraint: The Evolution of China’s Nonproliferation Policies and Practices, 1980-2004 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007)

Benjamin Page and Tao Xie, Living with the Dragon: How the American Public Views the Rise of China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010)

Robert I. Rotberg, ed., China Into Africa: Trade, Aid, and Influence (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2008)

Andrew Scobell, China’s Use of Military Force (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)

Richard H. Solomon, Chinese Negotiating Behavior: Pursuing Interests Through "Old Friends" (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1999)

Su Chi, Taiwan’s Relations with Mainland China: A tail wagging two dogs (London: Routledge, 2009)

Michael D. Swaine, America’s Challenge: Engaging a Rising China in the Twenty-First Century (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2011)

Tracking the Dragon: Selected National Intelligence Estimates on China, 1948-1976 (National Intelligence Council, Central Intelligence Agency, 2004), http://www.cia.gov/nic/NIC_foia_china.html

Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, Strait Talk: United States-Taiwan Relations and the Crisis with China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009)

Patrick Tyler, A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China, an Investigative History (New York: PublicAffairs, 1999)

Ming Wan, Human Rights in Chinese Foreign Relations: Defining and Defending National Interests (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001)

Ming Wan, Sino-Japanese Relations; Interaction, Logic, and Transformation (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006)

Brantly Womack, China and Vietnam: the Politics of Asymmetry (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006)

Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes, Red Star Over the Pacific: China’s Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2010)

Zhang Liang, comp., Andrew J. Nathan and Perry Link, eds., The Tiananmen Papers (New York: PublicAffairs, 2001)

Zhao Ziyang, Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang. Trans. and Ed. Bao Pu, Renee Chiang, and Adi Ignatius (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009)