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“What Does China Want?” is a perennial question in the US foreign policy firmament. The answer, however, more often reflects the hopes, fears, and insecurities of American officials and commentators than of well-grounded inquiry into China’s goals and motivations.
A new article coauthored by David C. Kang, Jackie S. H. Wong, and Zenobia T. Chan takes a different approach and draws notably less alarming conclusions than is typically the case. It immediately became a lightning rod of controversy among China watchers. Some praised the methodology but others claimed serious problems of interpretation or blindspots in the evidence. In conversation with Jake Werner, director of the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute, the authors will discuss their reasoning, respond to their critics, and suggest the implications for US policy toward China.
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