作为一种跨国挑战的“中国挑战”: 对当代美中关系的启示 / The “China” Challenge as Transnational Challenge: Implications for Contemporary U.S.-China Relations

Abstract

With the rise of China on the world stage, one of the most analyzed questions in international relations has been how to deal with the China challenge. And yet, few studies have paid critical attention to the question of what exactly the China challenge means. While the meaning of the concept may seem self-evident, this paper argues that this concept misunderstands the nature of the so-called “China challenge,” especially
in the economic realm. Instead of a nation-state-based challenge that originates in China itself, many aspects of the “China” challenge can be better understood as a transnational challenge, albeit with Chinese symptoms. Engaging in this conceptual analysis is vital in that a conceptual misunderstanding of the nature of the “China” challenge may, and indeed have misinformed the way in which the United States and other countries choose to respond to that challenge. This issue has taken on an added urgency in light of Donald Trump’s escalating trade war against China, a policy which has been largely misguided by the conventional way of understanding the “China” challenge.