HKU Moodle

Course level: Advanced

Day and time: Friday 13.00-14.50

Venue: CPD-LG.18

Lecturer: Alejandro REYES

Email: atreyeshk@gmail.com

Office hours: By appointment

Tutor: Jennifer ANG

Email: jang@hku.hk

Office hours: By appointment

This course will look at China’s position in the world – through its history and since the founding of the People’s Republic but with a heavy focus on developments and conditions since the economic opening in 1978. The aim is for students to tackle some of the big issues relating to China’s role in international politics and global affairs. Key questions include: What impact have the political, economic and social currents in Chinese history had on its contemporary foreign policies and relations? What has China’s economic transformation meant for the global economy? What are China’s main international relationships and how have their respective dynamics changed? In particular, what has been the nature of the China-United States relationship since the opening up of ties and diplomatic normalization in the 1970s? Are the global economy and the international order now essentially a “great power” competition between China and the US – and if so, what are the implications of such a framework for other countries and regions including the rest of Asia (particularly East Asia and India), Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa and what is called the Global South or the Global Majority? How has the global emphasis on economic and national security risks affected the outlook for the China-US relationship? Students should anticipate that the course will cover significant current developments in the China-US and China-global dynamic that will inevitably unfold during the semester. Topics for discussion in class and tutorial may therefore hinge on keeping abreast of and analyzing these events.