Busting Myths About China

Chris, Melanie, and Zack discuss the recent War on the Rocks
article "Beyond Colossus or Collapse: Five Myths Driving American
Debates about China." Authors Evan Medeiros and Jude Blanchette
tee up key myths surrounding China’s economic growth and foreign
policy, and the success or failure of the U.S. strategy of
engagement with China. The hosts scrutinize which myths are most
widely believed, and which should not be guiding American policy.
But they also consider which beliefs are actually true, and which
are most important to current and future U.S. policy. A second
“attagirl” in a row for Melanie’s niece Sophie, and an
“attapeople” to those recently admitted to grad school. Zack has
a grievance with the Chinese Communist Party, Melanie gripes
about Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s selective outrage over insults on
social media, and Chris explains that a ship stuck in the Suez
Canal is mostly a problem because of all the bad memes it
generates.


 


Links


Evan Medeiros and Jude Blanchette, “Beyond Colossus or
Collapse: Five Myths Driving American Debates about China,” War
on the Rocks, March 19, 2021

Joint Statement on the WHO-Convened Covid-19 Origins Study,
U.S. State Department, March 30, 2021 

Javier C. Hernandez, "WHO Inquiry on the Pandemic's Origin:
What We Know," New York Times, March 30, 2o21

Elizabeth Warren, Tweet, March 25, 2021

Thomas Shugart, "Trends, Timelines, and Uncertainty: An
Assessment of the State of Cross-Strait Deterrence," U.S.-China
Economic and Security Review Commission, February 18, 2021

Daniel Drezner, “Searching for Signs of Intelligent Symbolism
in the Suez Canal,"The Washington Post

Richard Betts, “The Delusion of Impartial Intervention,"
Foreign Affairs, November 1994

Nicholas Eberstadt, "China's Demographic Outlook to 2040 and
Its Implications," American Enterprise Institute, January 2019

Scott Kennedy, Bonnie Glaser, Jude Blanchette, and Matthew
Goodman, "We Stand with MERICS," Center for Strategic and
International Studies, March 26, 2021