7:00 p.m., Thusday, Sept. 27, 2007
Webster Hall Auditorium
Admission: free

China and the U.S.: Who Threatens Who?

The defense budget of the U.S. has already grown to a point at which it is equal to all the defense budgets of every nation in the world combined. To justify maintaining this level of funding, the U.S. must find clearly identifiable enemies, even where no real antagonistic relationships exist. China’s sheer size and rapid economic growth make it a prime candidate to become America’s newest “enemy.” Professor Rosemont will argue that, rather than China threatening the U.S., it is actually the U.S. that has positioned itself in a way that can be seen as threatening to China. If, after its concerns in the Middle East no longer occupy center stage, the U.S. continues to maintain or escalate this threatening posture, China will be forced to respond - resulting in a conflict that would be disastrous for both countries. Dr. Rosemont will discuss how the U.S. relationship to China can be understood from economic, political, and military perspectives and also the role non-governmental organizations and global institutions, such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund, play in this complex international relationship.

Dr. Henry Rosemont Jr. is regarded as one of the top Confucian scholars in the world. He is concurrently the George B. and Willma Reeves Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts Emeritus at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and senior consulting professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, China. Dr. Rosemont holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Washington and an honors A.B. from the University of Illinois. He pursued post-doctoral studies in linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969-71, studying with Noam Chomsky. He is the author of A Chinese Mirror (1991), Rationality and Religious Experience (2001), Radical Confucianism (forthcoming 2007), and more than 60 articles and reviews in anthologies and scholarly journals.

7:00 p.m., Thusday, Sept. 27, 2007
Webster Hall Auditorium
Admission: free

Encountering the Rising China: Three Challenges Facing Sino-American Relations

China’s rapid rise as a prominent world power in the past quarter century has profoundly changed the world today and has the potential to change the world even more significantly in the future. This should be regarded more as the “China challenge” rather than the “China threat.” Professor Chen will discuss how America can be prepared to meet this challenge in three areas: strategic, policymaking and implementation, and cultural and educational. He will focus on how institutions of higher education in the United States can be a part of America’s responses.

Dr. Chen Jian is the Michael J. Zak Professor of History for U.S.-China Relations and director of the China and Asia-Pacific Studies Program at Cornell University. He is also a Zijiang Distinguished Visiting Professor at East China Normal University. He received his M.A. from Fudan University in 1982 and his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University in 1990. He previously taught at East China Normal University, Tibetan Nationality College, SUNY-Geneseo, Southern Illinois University, and the University of Virginia. He was a Norwegian Nobel Institute Fellow, a U.S. Institute of Peace Senior Fellow, and a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Dr. Chen is regarded as one of the world’s leading scholars in the areas of Chinese international history, Chinese-American relations, and the Cold War. Among his many publications are China’s Road to the Korean War: The Making of the Chinese-American Confrontation (1994), Chinese Communist Foreign Policy and the Cold War in Asia (1996, co-editor), and Mao’s China and the Cold War (2001).