Following Prof. Todd Hall talk about British-Chinese Relations and China Position in the World
Published:
It was a shame that I was somehow emotionally obliged to justify the quasi-hearing situation while seeing the minister doing his job, trying to formulate diplomatic rhetoric (which apparently wasn’t bought by most of the participants) in response to all the pertinent notions on humanitarian grounds. Nevertheless, I truly appreciate that you keep pointing out the importance of free flow of ideas, which pushes me to reflect again and again on the “real power imbalance” behind this.
In fact, the minister’s attitude itself demonstrates the tradition of the abstract and grand narratives often deployed in China’s official discourse, and it was so interesting to dive deeper into the mismatch between the idealism of harmony without uniformity and the realism that “there are structural incentives that force the state to do so”. On that note, I would like to follow up with some questions based on your statements:
Do you think there would be a shift in the “principal contradiction” of China’s foreign policy given the radically changing geopolitical circumstances? How it matters to the rest of the world?
When we take all the economic and financial sanctions as well as the “coercion” from the digital platforms into account (e.g., the North Stream, SWIFT exclusion, breakdown of Russia’s digital infrastructure and Starlink’s empowering Ukraine), is the current situation suggesting some tensions beyond geopolitical power struggles, and raising concerns that states might be forced to subordinate to economic interests?
Last but not least, what do you think is China’s major take-away from the current status and the implications for its future relations with those neighbours of China’s core interests, especially in issues that could be potential couplings (e.g., Digital Silk Road and the technical infrastructure)?