China’s recent activity in Africa goes beyond the mere muscle-flexing and oil-grabbing tendencies of an emerging global power. In the last five years, media reports of China’s growing presence in Africa have increasingly reinforced and intensified Western fears of an unrestrainable imperialist state. Articles brandishing headlines such as “China’s Economic Invasion of Africa” and “Africa: China’s New Backyard” depict Africa as the victim of Chin...
It is difficult to doubt today that China will ascend the power hierarchy and rise as a global superpower within the next century. News headlines constantly remind us of China’s remarkable economic growth and increasing political clout. Particularly as the power of the United States appears to be waning, speculation of a Chinese 21st century runs rampant. Boasting a GDP growth rate of 9.6 percent and surpassing Japan as the world’s s...
...r of the Uighur people. The areas of Xinjiang and Urumchi are highlighted in red. PHOTO COURTESY of Wikimedia Commons Columbia Political Review: Do you see yourself as a champion for something larger than the Uighur cause in China, such as an overall reform of the Chinese government, a secession of the Uighur people, a Pan-Turkic movement, or any other cause? Or have you always maintained a stance firmly on Uighur issues—and if so, why limit you...
...evitable. But if cuts are made across the board, without reference to strategy, the US military will find itself woefully unprepared to deal with the potential threats posed by a number of rising regional powers, particularly China. The question then becomes: Which parts of the defense budget should Congress prioritize, and why? Since the core national security interests of the United States stem from the sea (power projection, access to energy, ...
The print media has painted a painted a pretty bleak picture: not only that the best days of Western democracy are far behind us, but also China’s global hegemony in the next century is written in the stars. Many already speak of the twenty-first century as “The Chinese Century.” This is presented in concert to the conventional wisdom that the twentieth century was “The American Century” and the nineteenth century was “The British Century.” Ther...
...situation to the one Austen was describing, but we might rewrite it instead to say: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a country newly endowed with riches and self confidence, must be in want of the swag to match.” China has certainly acquired great riches in the past few decades, and signs of its increasing self-confidence are present everywhere, from belligerence in the South China Sea to intransigence on Syria. If we follow my alter...
An orange grove, a golf course, and a solar-powered model home occupy the grounds of Hunan Sunzone Optoelectronics, a solar panel manufacturer in south-central China. Not only has this nascent company cracked the code of linking corporate interests with aesthetic ones, but with almost 95 percent of its solar panel market in Europe, it has also proven its aptitude at matching its productivity with worldwide demand. Just two years old, Hunan Sunzo...
from Wikimedia Commons On the evening of Thursday, November 1, 2012, Columbia Law School hosted a panel discussion called “International Law and the South China Sea.” Panelists included Zhou Jian, UN ambassador for the People’s Republic of China and an advisor on maritime law for the PRC; Vietnam’s UN ambassador Le Hoai Trung; Henry Bensurto of the Philippines’ Department of Foreign affairs; Sir Daniel Bethlehem, visiting law professor at Colum...
Flames billow up into the sky from the charred shell of a black Honda. The owner walks away, guilty of having just set fire to his own car. Behind the man is a sign written in Chinese exclaiming “Defeat the Japanese Demons.” This is just one of many scenes capturing the zeitgeist of the riots last September in China that occurred after the Japanese government nationalized three uninhabited islands that lie off the coasts of Japan, China, and Ta...
In the beginning of October 1949, the bloody Chinese Civil War was nearing its end, and Mao Zedong had proudly declared the foundation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). With the Nationalists defeated, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could now focus on its aims on fully reuniting the country and instituting socialism. The disastrous effects of the latter aim are well-known. However, the vagueness of this first notion – of fully “reunitin...
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