Professor Zheng Wang on NPR’s 'On Point'
Friday, December 9, 2016
Professor Zheng Wang is the Director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS) at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations. He also directs the School's graduate specialization in Global Negotiation and Conflict
Management, is a Carnegie Fellow at New America, a Global Fellow at the Kissinger
Institute on China and the United States of the Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars, a member of the National Committee on United States-China Relations
(NCUSCR), and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the China Center for the South China Sea
Studies of Nanjing University in Nanjing, China.
He appeared on NPR's "All Things Considered" last month.
In his most recent NPR appearance for "On Point," with Tom Ashbrook, Professor Zheng Wang discussed with
other China-U.S. experts the controversy surrounding the recent congratulatory call
from Taiwan to President-elect Donald Trump.
Ashbrook noted:
"One phone call and U.S.-China relations are on the table. Donald Trump took a phone call from the president of Taiwan. American presidents haven't done that for forty years. Some applauded the assertiveness. China lodged a "solemn protest." Low key but unmistakable. The U.S. may overestimate its strength, says Beijing. Trump was blistering on the campaign trail toward China. If push comes to shove, what then? This hour On Point: the U.S.-China balance of power as Donald Trump heads for the White House."
Professor Zheng Wang noted the changes in the balance of power over the last few decades:
"Today's China is no longer the China of 20 years ago, even 10 years ago. China's economy is over 20 times that of 25 years or so ago in 1989. So it's a different China. And the balance of the relationship developed very fast. For example, maybe 5 or 10 years ago people would still say that the U.S.- China relationship was one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world. But today, I think most scholars in the world would say the most important bilateral relationship.
I think it's very important for the two countries to get along with each other because they have a lot of things they have to work together."
Regarding the relationship of China and the U.S., and president-elect Trump's stated desire to fundamentally change the balance of trade in what he has referred to as "an exploitive" relationship, and how the leader of China, Xi Jinping, may react to any "turning over of the tables"—and to a President Trump, Professor Zheng Wang noted:
"Actually, you will find these two leaders, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Mr. Trump, have some similarities. And, if you look at Trump's slogan during the campaign -- "Make America Great Again" – President Xi Jinping has a very similar slogan and he has actually used it for several years, which he called "The Chinese Dream": "The Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation," which, if you translate it differently, is exactly "Make China Great Again." And they both are nationalistic leaders."
Hear more of Professor Zheng Wang's analysis on U.S. -China relations and how the
election of Donald Trump may impact them on NPR's "Turning Point."
