How East Asians View a Rising China

The School of Politics and International Relations 2016 Seminar Series

Lunch will be provided at the seminar after the Q&A session.

Abstract: China’s regional and global rise has had profound economic, political and security implications. In particular, Beijing has both taken new, robust initiatives in the international economy and stepped-up its activities in maritime East Asia. From the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement to freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea, the United States has rebalanced its policies in order to place special emphasis on Asia and the Indo-Pacific. The new regional strategies from Washington and Beijing have created both opportunities and challenges for China’s neighbors. But how do those countries feel about the heightened presence of both China and the United States in their backyard? The fourth phase of the Asian Barometer Survey provides a broader scope of survey data on how these Asian countries perceive a rising China vs. the United States. 

Yun-han Chu is Distinguished Research Fellow of Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica and Professor of Political Science at National Taiwan University. He serves concurrently as president of Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. He specializes in politics of Greater China, East Asian political economy and democratization.

Professor Chu received his Ph. D. in political science from the University of Minnesota and joined the faculty of National Taiwan University in 1987. He was a visiting associate professor at Columbia University in 1990-1991. He was appointed a vice president of the CCK Foundation in 1999. He became the president of the organization in June 2001. Before joining the foundation, he had served as Director of Programs of the Institute for National Policy Research from 1989 to 1999.

He is the founder and Director of the Asian Barometer Survey (ABS), a regional network of survey on democracy, governance and development covering more than seventeen Asian countries. Prof. Chu was a former president of Chinese Association of Political Science (Taipei) in 2002-2004, a member of the International Council of the Asia Society between 2001 and 2007, and a member of the Council of American Political Science Association (2009~2011). He was elected an Academician of Academia Sinica, the country’s highest academic honor, in July 2012. He received the University of Minnesota's Outstanding Achievement Award, which is the highest honor bestowed upon its graduates, in October 2014. He currently serves on the editorial board of Journal of Democracy, China Review, Journal of Contemporary China, International Studies Perspectives, Journal of Chinese Political Science, China Perspective, China: An International Journal, and Journal of East Asian Studies. He is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of fifteen books. Among his recent English publications are How East Asians View Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2008) Citizens, Elections and Parties in East Asia (Lynne Reinner, 2008), Dynamics of Local Governance in China During the Reform Era (Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc, 2010),  Democracy in East Asia: A New Century (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), and Taiwan's Democracy Challenged (Lynne Reinner Publishers, 2016).