Oct 15,2015 Special Forum

Xi Jinping as Historian: Marxist, Chinese, Nationalist, Global

“Only by having a correct recognition of history can it be possible for us to open up a better future. … Forgetting history signifies betrayal.”1 In February 2014, a little over a year after Xi Jinping ascended to power as the secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and then the president of the […]

Alison Kaufman

China Dream , China's national rejuvenation , Chinese history , Chineseness , National identity , Victory Day

Oct 15,2015 Special Forum

Xi Jinping’s Impact on China’s Legal Development: Domestic and International

When Xi Jinping came to the United States for a state visit in September 2015, questions about China’s posture toward the rule of law, domestically and internationally, were scattered across Washington’s agenda. The perennial question of human rights had again become an urgent and law-related concern, with the crackdown on rights protection lawyers in mid-2015, […]

Jacques deLisle

Legalist repression , National identity , Rule of law , Top-down government , UNCLOS

Oct 15,2015 Special Forum

Dreaming Big, Acting Big: Xi’s Impact on China’s Military Development

Xi Jinping emerged from his recent US visit with no meaningful new constraints on the development, deployment, and use of China’s military. Constructively, as part of a larger UN support package, he unveiled a Chinese plan to establish a police squad and 8,000 standby troops for UN Peacekeeping. Despite an ambiguous statement of intent to […]

Andrew Erickson

Asymmetry , China Military Dream , Kill-Chain , National identity , Sino-American military tensions , South China Sea

Oct 15,2015 Special Forum

Grading Xi Jinping’s America Policy: C-

President Xi Jinping has dealt with the United States for almost three years as relations have declined. His bold and assertive actions in areas sensitive to US interests departed sharply from past restraint and put an aroused America on guard. It is hard to give these results a passing grade. As they did in Washington […]

Robert Sutter

Chinese assertiveness , National identity , Sino-American interdependence , Sino-American rivalry , US rebalance

Sep 24,2015 Alternative Scenarios

Scenario of China’s Fault

In March 2015, Premier Li Keqiang gave a press conference following the conclusion of the annual National People’s Congress, in which he explained that China’s relationship with Japan had reached an important crossroads. In a year in which the two countries were about to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the end of WWII, Li presented […]

Amy King

CCP , Economic Relations , National identity , Re-Remember , Regionalism

Sep 23,2015 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario II: Optimism amidst Doubts for China and Its International Behavior

On the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the end of WWII, China’s much expected military parade of September 3 was held in Beijing. After all, China, the “forgotten ally” as the British historian Rana Mitter put it, was a key part of the anti-fascist alliance during WWII. It bore a heavy burden in the […]

Ren Xiao*

China-Japan-South Korea summit , National identity , One Belt One Road , Regionalism

Sep 21,2015 Review Article

Chinese Books on China and Global Governance

He Yafei, Xuanze: Zhongguo yu quanqiu zhili [Choice: China and Global Governance] (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 2015) Tao Jian, Lin Hongyu, Zhongguo jueqi yu quanqiu zhili [The Rise of China and Global Governance] (Beijing: Shijie zhishi chubanshe, 2014) Zhou Shuchun, Zhongguo de shijie meng he renlei wenming de zhuanxing [China’s World Dream and Human […]

See-Won Byun

global governance , International relations theory , National identity , The Chinese Dream

Sep 18,2015 Alternative Scenarios

Scenario of Japan’s Fault

As the fiftieth anniversary of Japan’s defeat in the Asia-Pacific War approached in the summer of 1995, the Japanese Diet debated a resolution, which, it was hoped, would lay the ghosts of the past to rest. The aim was to present a national statement of memory and remorse, broadly supported across the political spectrum and […]

Tessa Morris-Suzuki

Abe Statement , History problem , National identity , Regionalism

Sep 10,2015 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario II: Problems Are Structural

On September 3, Beijing’s sky was “parade blue.” It was a rare day when the US embassy index indicated that the air quality was “good.” Following the “APEC blue” last November, the Chinese government once again displayed its power to achieve what seems hardly possible. Yes, the parade was a display of power, indeed, with […]

Takahara Akio*

70th Anniversary , National identity , nationalism

Aug 18,2015 Review Article

‘Ukeikasuru Nihon seiji’ (‘Japan’s Politics Leaning to the Right’)

Nakano Koichi, Ukeikasuru Nihon seiji (Japan’s Politics Leaning to the Right), (Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho, 2015) On the day when the “Abe statement” in commemoration of the seventieth anniversary of the end of WWII is issued, this review article considers one Japanese critic’s analysis of what lies behind the statement. After all, Abe is but the […]

Gilbert Rozman

Kokkashugi , Liberal Democratic Party , National identity , National security , Revisionism