In the decades after 1979, China’s adherence to key tenets of the US-backed liberal international economic system enabled it to achieve middle income status. After the 2008-9 global financial crisis, however, weaknesses in the US model combined with China’s own sustained growth increased Beijing’s confidence in an alternative, state-oriented model that increasingly underpins China's foreign economic engagement. This course examines the basis of China’s economic strength as a precursor to investigating the Belt and Road initiatives, trade, investment, and development policies, international organization advocacy, business practices, and other aspects of China’s growing international economic footprint. These factors are analyzed from the perspective of China’s internal dynamics, competition with the United States, and overall foreign policy goals and are evaluated for their impact on the prevailing global economic order. Planned guest speakers include senior representatives from the State Department and the Embassy of China in Washington, as well as experts on Chinese investment in the United States and Taiwan’s role in global technology supply chains. In-class simulations focus on China’s WTO accession and the Belt and Road Initiative versus the Indo-Pacific Strategy. The course is taught by a practitioner who spent over a decade managing US government economic policy in and on China.
Instructor permission required.