China and America: A Global Power Struggle

For better or worse, China is America’s most important peer, keenest friend, and most dangerous enemy, as well as the only country that truly jeopardizes American hegemony. China’s ambitions in Asia threaten American interests far more than Putin’s Russia do in Europe. Meanwhile, major American companies like Apple, Tesla, and Wal-Mart can overlook Russia with 146 million people and a stagnating economy, but they all believe they need China’s market of 1.4 billion to thrive. In 2021, United States trade with Russia was an anemic $36 billion, less than half of US trade with the Netherlands. Trade with China, however, was $656 billion. Is it a new cold war, a cyber war, a new “great game” for the 21st century? Are we in a ‘pre-war’ period, between World War 2 and World War 3? If not, what is it? And how did we get to where we are today? This course will explore the messy new reality of competition between the United States and China, from fights over the coronavirus to trade tensions to Beijing’s censorship of Hollywood films to the battle for tech dominance. It will seek to address the two questions of our time: What does China’s rise mean for the United States? And how should the US respond?
 
 
 

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