"China Program Drives Research for Positive U.S.-China Relationship"

Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government

Winter 2007-2008

Are China and the United States destined to become adversaries? The Belfer Center and the greater Harvard community are driving efforts to study the meteoric rise of China and to work with China to ensure a positive future relationship.

The Center's efforts revolve around security, economic, and political dimensions of the relationship. Kennedy School Adjunct Professor Richard Rosecrance, a senior fellow with the Center's International Security Program, is leading a Harvard-Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) initiative to develop policy recommendations regarding the future of the U.S.-China relationship. Leading China and international security scholars from Harvard met in March in Hong Kong and will meet again in Beijing in December with Chinese leaders. A paper by Belfer Center Board member Ernest May on accommodating rising powers throughout history has facilitated the discussion.

Anthony Saich, faculty chair of the Kennedy School's Asia Programs and director of Harvard's Asia Center, and Ezra Vogel, former director, have taken part in the meetings along with C. H. Tung, former chief executive of Hong Kong, and Victor Fung, businessman and former director of the Hong Kong Development Council. They were joined by Wang Jisi of Beijing University, Gu Guoliang of CASS, and Chen Zhiya of the People's Liberation Army. Besides Rosecrance, Belfer Center representatives include Graham Allison,

Ashton Carter, Steven E. Miller, Joseph Nye, and Lawrence Summers. The group contributes to Harvard's goal of solidifying Harvard's preeminence in the study of modern and contemporary China and the country's international relationships.

This program will concentrate on ways in which China can become a responsible stake- holder in international politics, on Chinese participation in a post-Kyoto energy regime, and on the need for U.S. and China to avoid becoming too committed to flashpoints like Taiwan and North Korea. How can Chinese "hard power" be consistent with the maintenance of U.S. "soft power" in the years ahead? In addition, the increasingly close economic ties between Beijing and Washington raise the question of whether that interdependence can become irreversible.

These studies will result in joint U.S.-China papers and policy initiatives. A final meeting of the group will take place in Cambridge in late January, 2008.

For more information about this publication please contact the Belfer Center Communications Office at 617-495-9858.

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