INTR9064 The Rise of China: Dream or Nightmare

2019

4.5

1 x 2-hour seminar weekly

INTR9011 has been successfully completed

Master of Arts (International Relations); Graduate Diploma in International Relations; Graduate Certificate in International Relations

This topic assesses the dramatic policy shifts underway in China under the leadership of Xi Jinping since 2012. Xi defines his leadership in terms of achieving the ‘China Dream’, or the ‘rejuvenation of the nation’. The topic explores what this means and the challenges it faces.

Is Xi pursuing a ‘grand strategy’ to ensure China’s rise to ‘great power’ status?

Domestically, the China Dream centres on ‘cleansing’ the ruling Communist Party of corruption and reasserting its ideological control over all aspects of political, economic and social life. Internationally, Xi’s ‘China Dream’ centres on establishing a ‘new type of great power relationship’ with the US, challenging its ‘primacy’, especially in Asia, defining China’s interests in terms of the values of its civilisation, and establishing the right to help ‘write the rules’ of the international order.

The topic asks whether China’s ‘dream’ is everybody else’s ‘nightmare’?

This topic aims to:

• introduce students to the political economy of reform in China
• explore the impact of the global financial crisis on China
• assess critically China's role in facilitating recovery from the crisis
• gain an appreciation of the domestic and global economic challenges facing China

On completion of this topic, students should be aware of:

• the global significance of the political economy of reforms in China
• the nature and impact of the global financial crisis on China's economy and how the Government responded
• the impact of China on the global economy and debates over the role it played in facilitating recovery from the crisis
• the domestic economic challenges confronting China and the global challenges posed by the emergence of China as a major economic player