Engaging with China and the United States: An Increasingly Complex Challenge, Including for Public Administration Scholars and Practitioners

• Author: Andrew Podger
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13013
• Date: 01 March 2019

Engaging with China and the United States: An Increasingly Complex Challenge, Including for Public Administration Scholars and Practitioners 277

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 79, Iss. 2, pp. 277–280. © 2018 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13013.

Engaging with China and the United States: An Increasingly

Complex Challenge, Including for Public Administration

Scholars and Practitioners

There are many challenges for those in the

United States engaging with China, and for

those in China engaging with the United

States. The challenges are arguably more difficult

and growing more complex, however, for those of us

outside the United States and China trying to engage

constructively with both.

Different Perspectives on China

There are many perspectives on China today and its

relationship with the rest of the world, several from

within China itself. The nationalistic perspective has

been growing under President Xi Jinping, expressed

within China as the need to emerge from the

“century of shame” to regain both self-respect and

an ancient standing internationally as the “Middle

Kingdom.” Another perspective within China, not

necessarily inconsistent with the first but expressed

less boisterously, is the vision of a moderately wealthy

country based on a market economy that successfully

competes internationally, abiding by international

rules and obligations.

There are also different perspectives on China within

the United States. There is a defense and security

perspective, increasingly uneasy about China’s growing

capability and influence and its evident willingness to

flex its muscles. There is a protectionist perspective

concerned about the impact of China’s manufacturing

competitiveness on jobs in the United States. There

is a human rights perspective concerned about

restrictions on freedom of speech and association

and about strengthening Chinese Communist

Party (CCP) control under Xi. There is also a more

economically liberal perspective that welcomes China’s

emergence and its increased productivity because of

the potential gains to both countries in terms of real

incomes and standards of living and, in time, personal

freedoms.

Then there are the perspectives of those in countries

most directly affected by China’s growing economic

power and associated international influence.

Those most clearly benefiting from trade with

China are keen to see China continue to prosper.

There are also those—and sometimes they are the

same people—who are uneasy about the associated

pressures to accommodate China’s increasingly

strongly expressed interests in international

economic, social, and security matters. And there

is the challenge to preserve good relations with

both China and the United States when there are

tensions between the two.

Australia’s Search for a Nuanced Approach

Australia presents an interesting case of a country

juggling relations with both giants. China is by far

our largest trading partner: we sell huge quantities

of mineral resources, and we buy large quantities of

manufactured goods; we also trade significantly in

services such as education and high-quality products

such as wine; overall, we enjoy a trade surplus with

China. The United States is our most important

defense and security partner, as it has been since

World War II.

China’s growing economic strength is of direct and

significant benefit to Australia, but, from a defense

perspective, this strength represents an increasingly

capable power that, should circumstances radically

change, could pose a major threat. Defense is like an

insurer of last resort. Defense strategies focus both on

capability and on intent: low capability allows a long

waiting time should intent shift adversely, but high

capability means a much shorter warning time and

hence the need to increase the insurance premium

and associated defense investment. This point is being

made by our defense analysts.

Australia has been searching for a nuanced approach,

not so much “balancing” the respective benefits

of partnering with China and partnering with the

United States as teasing out both multilateral and

bilateral relationships not only with China and the

United States but also with the many other nations

in our Indo-Pacific region (not least the more slowly

Andrew Podger

Australian National University

Andrew Podger is Honorary Professor

of Public Policy at the Australian National

University.

E-mail: andrew@podger.com.au;

andrew.podger@anu.edu.au

Viewpoint

Stephen E. Condrey

andTonya Neaves,

Associate Editors