Otago Foreign Policy School
June 22nd, 2010 at 3:00 pm by David FarrarThe 45th Otago Foreign Policy School is on from Friday 25 to Sunday 27 June.
China’s rise and future role on the world stage will go under the spotlight at the University of Otago’s 45th Foreign Policy School later this month. The event gathers together leading national and international China scholars and New Zealand diplomats, policymakers, business people and members of the public.
Titled “China’s Ascent: New Superpower or New Global System?” the School is being held in association with the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington. The gathering takes place at Dunedin’s Salmond College from 25-27 June. …
“Among the key questions to be tackled at the School is ‘will a new China fundamentally change the rules of the game in the global system, or will China simply become another great power using the traditional tools of money, force and diplomacy’?,” Professor Patman says.
New Zealand-China relations are the focus of a roundtable composed of leading Chinese academics and New Zealand figures including Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce CEO Charles Finny and journalist and analyst Colin James.
The School’s opening address will be given on the Friday evening by Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon. Murray McCully.
The keynote address, ‘China’s Global Identities: the Schizophrenic Superpower’, is being presented by Professor David Shambaugh of George Washington University. Professor Shambaugh is an internationally recognised authority on contemporary Chinese affairs and the international politics and security of the Asia-Pacific region.
How very timely.
The full programme is here and you can register here.
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June 22nd, 2010 at 3:25 pm
So, how does the west get China to be a more democratic and humane state? John Key seems to think that apologising for peaceful protest against its murderous occupation of Tibet is going to work. I have my doubts…
Vote:June 22nd, 2010 at 3:40 pm
I’m moving back to NZ in July after being away for eight and a half years. I have spent the last seven and a half years in China. It’s just so amazing to see China’s change in such a short period of time. In the city Tianjin, where I’ve been based, it’s gone from “China’s biggest village” to a modern city within a decade with a population of 11 million. The infrastructure improvements have been amazing and seem to be well planned in general.
I’m a little wary what China will be like as it becomes more of a player on the international scene. I hope it doesn’t become another bully like America. Chinese people here admire strength in a nation very much. We’ll see.
Vote:June 22nd, 2010 at 6:18 pm
is key doing a ‘how to ream ‘foreign-dignataries’ workshop..?
if not..why not…?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:June 22nd, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Well, somebody clumsily protests Communist Party rule over Tibet and the left blogs are backing him and the right blogs are pouring scorn on him. Never thought I would see the day… Funny old world, innit?… etc.
[DPF: As I said, if someone organised a protest on the forecourt about Tibet, I'd probably attend. What I wouldn't sign up to is what Russel did]
Vote:June 22nd, 2010 at 8:02 pm
In a very complex and subtle way, curia pigeon, which doesn’t include the need to point out at every single opportunity their failings. Honestly, lefties seem to imagine that by protesting, they’re raising an issue that no-one else has never thought of nor considered. Fuck it pisses me off.
Lefties re: China-Tibet don’t seem to have an answer to this very simple question. Is it more likely you’ll be able to influence someone if they like and respect you or if they think you’re a complete prat who they can’t wait to tread on?
Vote:June 22nd, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Not particularly sniping at your more-nuanced-than-most position, DPF. It was just the general pattern that intrigued/amused me.
Vote:June 22nd, 2010 at 10:16 pm
So Sam, do you think it was rigged or what?
Vote:June 23rd, 2010 at 2:58 am
So, how does the west get China to be a more democratic and humane state? .
The West has no business in the above. China will evolve as China will evolve and whether it becomes more ‘democratic’ is not something that should or will be decided by Westerners.
As for ‘humane’ China is certainly providing a better life for its people than so called ‘democratic’ India.
China’s life expectancy of 73 is approaching that of middle income European countries, while India’s life expectancy is about 10 years behind China’s. In fact China’s life expectancy under Mao was higher than what it is in India today.
The attitude of Westerners is quite disgusting and self-centred. They think the only human rights that matter are so called freedom of speech, freedom of sexual deviancy etc. The fact that hundreds of millions of people go hungry around the world, that hundreds of millions of children die of preventable diseases to them is not a ‘human rights’ problem at all, and most are happy for that state of affairs to continue.
When in fact if we are talking of ‘humane’ China should perhaps receive plaudits for relentlessly rescuing hundreds of millions of people from poverty at a rate unprecedented in all of human history.
But because China has several hundred political prisoners, none of which by the way are executed (the last killings for purely ideological reasons happened in the 70s), out of a population of 1.3 billion, this is seen to be the greatest outrage to humanity in the entire world.
Vote:June 23rd, 2010 at 3:05 am
curia pigeon: Of course when the West practically had the running of China, they did little to introduce so called ‘democratic’ values.
Instead it was simply about siphoning off vast amounts of wealth from China to the West.
The Chinese became especially disillusioned with Western democracy after those ‘democratic’ Western nations treated China as war booty, handing chunks of German ruled territory in Shangdong province to the Japanese, as a reward for Japan supporting the allies in WWI.
Thus young Chinese revolutionaries discarded western bourgeois democracy as a way to save China, instead turning to embrace Marxism.
So really China has little to learn from the West in terms of ‘humane’ values. Unless those ‘humane’ values you speak of include forcing other people to buy narcotics at gunpoint ala the Opium War, forcing an invaded nation to indemnify the invading nations ala Boxer indemnities, or putting up signs in Chinese parks saying ‘no dogs or chinese allowed’
The West should just butt the f%#$ out of China’s internal affairs, and instead develop good respectful relations for the benefit of both the West and China.
Vote:June 23rd, 2010 at 9:39 am
“So Sam, do you think it was rigged or what?”
Think what was rigged?
“China will evolve as China will evolve and whether it becomes more ‘democratic’ is not something that should or will be decided by Westerners. ”
No – it should be decided by the Chinese – and that requires an end to political censorship of the Chinese people, political repression of the Chinese people and the use of brute force to silence Chinese democrats.
Vote: