On Thursday, March 25, 2021, more than 110 attendees gathered over livestream for the webinar, “A World Safe for Autocracy? The Domestic Politics of China’s Foreign Policy,” with Jessica Chen Weiss, an associate professor of government at Cornell University.
In this illuminating presentation, Weiss discussed her new book project and explored how China’s governance and domestic politics shape its foreign policy. Competing views currently exist in the discourse around China’s foreign policy. Some argue that China and the United States are moving towards a new Cold War, and that China is an existential challenger to the United States. Others have been more optimistic about the role of China in world affairs, arguing that China is a stakeholder in international issues such as climate change. Still others frame China as a free-rider that has failed to contribute enough to international causes.
However, Weiss argues that China’s behavior has varied, as China responds strategically to different issues. Weiss argues that the key themes of centrality and contestation shape China’s interests and investments domestically and internationally. On issues that are more central to its interests, such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Xinjiang, China is likely to be less flexible. On issues with low centrality, such as many international issues, however, China is more amenable to cooperation and compromise. For example, China has transformed its stance on climate change, even taking on what some have seen as a leadership role on the world stage. Additionally, the degree to which issues are highly contested domestically will also influence China’s policies. Ultimately, Weiss argues, China’s overarching goal is national survival- ensuring a world that is “safe for autocracy.”
In the Q&A session that followed, Weiss answered questions from audience members on issues ranging from China’s ambitions in Africa, to how domestic issues in the U.S. are affecting U.S.-China relations. Associate Vice President and Dean of International Programs Meredith McQuaid delivered closing remarks and thanked Professor Weiss for her insightful and educational presentation.
About the Speaker
Jessica Chen Weiss is an associate professor of government at Cornell University, a political science editor at the Washington Post Monkey Cage blog, and a nonresident senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Weiss is the author of Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China’s Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 2014). Her research appears in International Organization, China Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Security Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, and Review of International Political Economy, as well as in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Quarterly. Weiss was previously an assistant professor at Yale University and founded FACES, the Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford University. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, she received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, where her dissertation won the American Political Science Association Award for best dissertation in international relations, law and politics. Weiss is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.