Letter from the Editors
Dear reader,
The past two years have been an exceptionally challenging time for so many affected by the United States-China relationship. Travel between the two countries has been severely limited. Each country has implemented vastly different pandemic responses, reflecting their differing values and governmental systems. As physical connection has been largely cut off and differences have been emphasized over commonalities, the United States and China have defined and perceived each other in increasingly hostile ways, exacerbating tensions and damaging hopes that reconciliation will be possible.
Founded by the U.S.-China Better Relations Coalition, the Intercollegiate U.S.-China Journal (IUCJ) strives to shift the prevailing negative narrative surrounding U.S.-China relations towards one of more positive connection and greater understanding. To this end, the second issue of the IUCJ features a diverse array of student voices on global issues and foreign policy, as they pertain to the U.S. and China. As a journal staffed by students from across the globe, the IUCJ actively cultivates a new shared culture of collaboration and mutual understanding. We also hope that by publishing these articles in both English and Chinese, this issue will connect students across the Pacific by providing a common experience upon which to foster dialogue.
Hope lies in the next generation – those who view themselves as global citizens and fully recognize the importance of proceeding with solidarity, resisting polarizing tropes, and transcending the blame game that often underlies contemporary U.S.-China relations. How countries define themselves and perceive each other greatly affects how they interact. Thus, the first step to improving relations is ensuring that optimism and good-faith perception become prevailing tones in dialogue and interaction between the United States and China.
Sincerely,
Stella Robertson and Ben Lipson
Co-Editors-in-Chief
Intercollegiate U.S.-China Journal
Contents
Trump’s Young Chinese Allies and Their Anti-Elite Narratives on Social Media
Junhui Xu. Fudan University ‘21
The 2016 American presidential election witnessed the emergence of political polarization and strident partisanship in the U.S. Young voters, for example, were less likely to identify themselves as conservatives, with only one third holding favorable views of the Republican Party…
Information Anxieties: Popular Imaginations of Information in Post-Mao China
Serena Weiying Wu, Washington University in St. Louis ‘23
In the late 1970s and 1980s, China witnessed the emergence of a plethora of avant-garde science research. One monumental event of this period was the founding of somatic science (人体科学) by Qian Xuesen (钱学森), the father of China’s missile and space program. Qian proposed that the human body is basically an information system that is able to communicate the supergiant system of the external world…
Infrastructural Afro-Modernity with Chinese Transnational Capital: Narratives Surrounding the Kenyan Standard Gauge Railway
Jenny Zheng, New York University ‘20
In 2013, under the new leadership of Chairman Xi Jinping, the Chinese government launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The China Daily calls the BRI “a bid to enhance regional connectivity and embrace a brighter future”…
Asian American Identity and the Covid-19 Pandemic
Interview with Dr. Min Zhou, Director of the Asia Pacific Center and the Walter and the Shirley Wang Endowed Chair in US-China Relations & Communications at the University of California, Los Angeles
There is no real difference between Chinese hatred and Asian hatred in the United States because the American public does not segment Asian people. Asian hatred seems to be caused by people’s inability to discharge their emotions on a personal level, but it is actually related to the racial system…
Red Hordes: American Perception of Chinese Troops During the Korean War
Todd Qiu, Harvard ‘22
Shortly before midnight on November 25, 1950, the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, or PVA, began its offensive against United Nations forces in North Korea. For the U.S.-led UN forces, what was meant to be a swift final push to defeat the remnants of the North Korean army…
Was China’s Use of Blockchain Technology to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic Successful?
Shichun Xu, Beijing Normal University ‘24 | Victoria Lu, Wellesley College ‘24 | Wei Huang, University of California, Irvine ‘23 | Jiayue Liu, Lexington Christian Academy ‘22 | Huakai Lai, Southeast University ‘21
As of May 2021, COVID-19 has caused 3.19 million deaths worldwide. The pandemic has also crippled the world economy: many businesses were forced to close, some industries were disproportionately affected, and unemployment sharply rose. Right from the start, many governments sought to use technology to combat the health and economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and blockchain technology, a fast-growing technology in recent years…