In case you missed our recent public talk with Andrew Nathan, you can read an excellent recap of some of the main issues by Elizabeth Shim in her post at UPI, “Xi Jinping’s power grab copes with U.S. distrust.” Here is a brief excerpt from Shim’s piece:
Chinese President Xi Jinping may be consolidating his power following the 19th Party Congress, because he believes China is facing its most challenging period, a U.S. analyst said Monday.
Andrew Nathan, a professor of political science at Columbia University, said Beijing perceives China’s emergence as the world’s second-largest economy is being met with wariness from the United States.
Current U.S. attitudes are being interpreted as presenting its own set of problems to China.
“I think the Chinese believe that inevitably the dominant power in the system is going to resist their rise,” Nathan said at the India China Institute at The New School. “I think they think the United States looked down on China for a long time, and figured the Chinese didn’t know how to tie their shoes right and we could tell them how to do it.”
“Now [the Americans] suddenly are realizing that [the Chinese] represent some kind of a challenge.” he added. “The Chinese expect by the laws of international affairs that the United States will find a way to resist the rise of China.”
The United States and China have confronted each other on such issues as Beijing’s military buildup on artificial islands in the South China Sea.
You can read the entire article online at UPI here.