Week 5 Reading Responses

This coming week we will be exploring two topics that are linked when it comes to relations between the U.S. and China -- Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Property. Many U.S. firms are looking to start new operations in China, expand existing ones, work with existing Chinese firms, or compete with them. And while there are some Chinese firms who are looking to expand into the U.S., among Chinese firms, one major trend that we're seeing is to develop within their home market. The Chinese government's push for innovation from its own citizens, or "indigenous innovation," plays a role in this trend. But some U.S. companies claim that this development of Chinese businesses and the indigenous innovation may be coming at the cost of American businesses. They claim that in China, their businesses are hurt because their intellectual property rights are not being protected and that they suffer a disadvantage in the market when the government shows preference to Chinese companies.

Go through the following readings and let us know what your take is. What are you finding most interesting? Do you see any major themes coming out? Can you pick up on any tensions between national development and international exchange? Is the Chinese government engaging in protectionism? Are American businesses applying a double standard?

McGregor, James. “China's Drive for 'Indigenous Innovation' - A Web of Industrial Policies,” (U.S. Chamber of Commerce).



Brookes, Peter. "China's Indigenous Innovation Trade and Investment Policies: How Great a Threat?" (Heritage), March 9, 2011.

Editorial Board. "China and Intellectual Property," (NYT), December 10, 2010.

Fannin, Rebecca. "China Startups Battle the BAT," (Forbes), October 18, 2010.

Lee, Kai-Fu. "Hard Choices: Betting on China's Startups," (Business Week), July 8, 2010.

Dolan, Kerry A. "The China Clean Tech Divide: Threat or Opportunity?" (Forbes), November 30, 2010.

Week 4 Reading Responses

Hi Everyone. Sorry for the delayed posting of the readings. I'm still playing catch-up after the conference last week, so I'm a bit behind. In the future, know that the readings are included on the syllabus and that you can post your responses as individual posts if you'd like.

But regarding this week, we will be examining strategic security and military relations between the U.S. and China. You may want to consider the following questions in your reading responses:

1. Does the China pose a threat to the U.S. in the Asia-Pacific region? Does the U.S. pose a threat to China in the region?

2. What do you think is motivating China's military buildup?

3. How does the demonstration of military strength affect the nation demonstrating the strength, its neighbors, and other interested parties?

4. What is the role of each nation's military in the bilateral relationship?

"China Challenges US Predominance in Asia-Pacific," (AP) March 7, 2011.

"The Fourth modernisation" (Economist) December 2, 2010

Swaine, Michael. "Q&A: China's Military Muscle," (Carnegie Endowment) January, 19, 2011.

Li, Cheng. "China's New Military Elite," (Brookings) 2007.

Summary of "The Role of the Dollar: Who Cares?" By Amer Handan

Paul Krugman basically accesses the importance of the dollar in the global monetary market in response to criticism from Hu Jintao. He concludes that the U.S. does enjoy certain benefits from its currency dominance, such as virtually zero-interest loans. However, by using Australia as an example of a country that has a relatively large international level of debts, he finds that the US's ability to borrow so much money and hold so much debt is not necessarily unique. Ultimately, he thinks that the international role of the dollar in the global economy does not really make that much difference to US economic power as a whole.

Week 2 Reading Responses

Below, you can find the readings for this upcoming Tuesday's class. There are more readings than usual, but they are definitely manageable.

Provide at least a paragraph response for at least one piece. Here are some questions to get things started:

- Which aspects of China's 5-year plan are most interesting to you? Why?

- Are the BRIC countries threats to American economic prosperity?

- Based on these pieces, how does economics seem to color the tone of relations between the two countries?

- Is China still a developing country? If it is, is it different from other developing countries? How so?

Readings
"Key Targets of China's 12th Five Year Plan." (Xinhua) . March 5, 2011.

Cooper, Helen. "Obama Sets Ambitious Export Goal." January, 28 2010.

"China and Colombia Announce Alternative Panama Canal." (BBC News) . February 14, 2011

Davis, Bob, Damien Paletta. "U.S. Gets Rebuffed at Divided Summit." (Wall Street Journal) . November, 13, 2010

"China Sees New Emerging Markets Bloc Consensus." (ABC News) April, 2 2011.

Krugman, Paul. "The Role of the Dollar: Who Cares?" (New York Times) . January 17, 2011

Krugman, Paul. "Chinese Confusions." (New York Times) . December 10, 2007.

Yu Yongding. "Reform Global Monetary System." (China Daily) . April 2, 2011.