Standing Up to Beijing and the Common Good

David McCourt

In recent years policy-makers from numerous western countries have effected a marked shift on policy towards the People’s Republic of China.  Out has gone the optimistic vision of shared economic growth and cooperation characteristic of the early 2000s, and in has come a dark image of the West and China locked in a potentially decades long competition for global power and influence, if not a new Cold War. As the cases of the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom show, this shift was far from inevitable, following instead the triumph of elites and policymakers critical of China—labelled respectively Competitors, Securocrats, and Critics—over their pro-Engagement colleagues. Retracing this recent history, this seminar centers the question of the common good in America, Australia and Britain’s policies of “standing up to Beijing.”  In particular, what are the trade-offs between defending Western countries from legitimate concerns emerging from a more powerful China—from domestic interference to geopolitical challenges—and viewing all issues relating to Beijing through a military-security lens?

David M. McCourt is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California-Davis, and is spending the academic year 2024-2025 as Visiting Professor at New York University Abu Dhabi. The author of The End of Engagement: America’s China and Russia Experts and U.S. Strategy Since 1989, he is currently finishing a follow-on study titled American Hegemony and China’s Rise: Knowing the PRC in Washington, Canberra, and London, on which this seminar is based.