Letter from the Editors
Dear reader,
Following last November’s Biden-Xi meeting in San Francisco, Sino-American relations have entered a moment of relative calm. There is good reason to celebrate the concrete steps both sides have taken to stabilize the bilateral relationship and build strategic trust. Still, the underlying structural factors that drove U.S.-China strategic competition have not changed, and it remains unclear how enduring this diplomatic pause will be. Particularly given our countries’ dueling narratives about competition, the endurance of this thaw will hinge on how the United States and China proceed to perceive themselves, each other, and the world around them.
Volume Four of the Intercollegiate U.S.-China Journal is titled RE:Cognition. We emphasize the theme of “RE,” aiming to convey new insights by revisiting various aspects of Chinese and American culture and history to bridge perception gaps while also conveying that these perceptions are a dialogue. Very often, our perceptions of ourselves and each other become self-fulfilling prophecies. By exposing each side to the other’s perspectives, we aim to challenge our readers to overcome conventional narratives and avoid the pitfalls of mutual fear and misunderstanding. We can only begin to effectively manage our bilateral relationship once Washington thoroughly understands how China views itself and the United States. In turn, Beijing must do the same for the U.S. We envision RE:Cognition as planting seeds of reconnection among American and Chinese college students, who will one day lead in mitigating tensions and perhaps even renewing Sino-American relations.
As our journal continues in its growth phase, we are excited to report that IUCJ has continued to hit new milestones. For Volume Four, we received a record 99 applications to join our staff and expanded our editorial, design, and communications teams to include 23 students. With more hands on deck, we subdivided our communications officers into new English and Chinese-language teams and created a new director of communications position to lead both. Due in no small part to their labors, IUCJ hit a new high-water mark for submissions and has a wider reach than ever before. Alongside these structural changes, our editorial leadership team reformed IUCJ’s article review process to maximize efficiency and cross-team collaboration without sacrificing editorial rigor. Moving forward, IUCJ will now be able to publish on a routine semiannual basis.
Though our role in the bilateral relationship is admittedly small, we are proud to contribute toward the maintenance of Sino-American student-to-student exchange. Though we strive to find common ground between our two sides, we most often find disagreements. However, IUCJ was never meant to be a vehicle for feigning consensus or ignoring our differences. Instead, we see articulated divergence as something valuable in its own right. By sharing contradictory viewpoints, we hope that our readers will see the value in digesting perspectives with which they are unfamiliar or may even categorically disagree and walk away with nuanced interpretations. This is not to say these outlooks must be normatively observed as morally or logically equivalent, but rather that they must be understood and taken seriously in spite of the fact that each country dismisses the other’s as invalid. Such a kind of objective empathy—whether strategic or cultural—is essential for the U.S. and China to navigate their rocky relationship moving forward.
Mutual recognition of where our viewpoints diverge is the first step toward mutual understanding. With this fourth volume of the Intercollegiate U.S.-China Journal, we hope to inspire our readers to recognize our differences and help us begin to reconnect.
Sincerely,
Clara Fu and Cameron Waltz
Co-Editors-in-Chief
Intercollegiate U.S.-China Journal
Contents
The Sino-Russian Border as Site for Conceptualizing Sino-Russian Relations
Genrietta Churbanova, Princeton University ‘24
Abstract: In this era characterized by tensions in U.S.-China relations and the increasing alienation of Russia from the west, warming Sino-Russian relations have received significant attention in western media and academia alike. Much of this attention, however, has focused on Sino-Russian relations at the interstate scale. This paper moves beyond the narrow understanding of Sino-Russian relations at the interstate level by examining those relations at the interpersonal scale along the Sino-Russian border. In adopting this ethnographic approach to the study of Sino-Russian relations, this paper arrives at the argument that the Sino-Russian border can be conceptualized as a site of friendship and symbiosis.
Criminalization of Adultery in the New Chinese Republic: A Combined Effort Between Legal and Social
Jiani Tian, University of Pennsylvania ‘24
Abstract: This paper argues that the inclusion of Chinese men in the 1935 Criminal Codes concerning adultery was a result of the efforts of female social activism and the New Culture Movement during that time. Neither group explicitly fought for the inclusion of men in the adultery criminal codes; however, while advancing their own agendas, the groups exerted significant social influence, which ultimately led to the inclusion of men in the adultery criminal laws. Through examining primary documents, legal cases, and other scholarly articles, this piece seeks to highlight the special relationship between China’s law and its people: rather than a linear one-way relationship where the people are passive subjects to the law, social activism can also substantively impact the state’s laws.
Remembering the Occupation of Beijing: What the Eight-Nation Alliance Reveals About Contemporary Grand Strategy
Kendall Carll, Harvard University ’26
Abstract: In the summer of 1900, growing anti-foreign and anti-Christian sentiment in China gave way to the Boxer Rebellion, and the Manchu regime joined hands with the rebels by declaring war on the Western powers. By the year’s end, however, the West responded in force, occupying Beijing with more than 40,000 troops, displacing the imperial court, and beginning negotiations on the damning Boxer Protocol. This paper examines what Washington’s role in the occupation of Beijing means for the U.S.-China relationship today. First arguing that the occupation was forgotten by the Americans but remembered by the Chinese, I then draw two lessons from the forgotten history for U.S. policymakers—one concerning China’s strategic sensitivity, and the other regarding America’s enduring ambition. In the process, I engage in a discussion of how disparate national historical memories inform a state’s policy orientations, offering that a tactful application of history should inform Washington’s China strategy.
First Principles: The Art of War’s Pertinence in Contemporary International Relations Analyses
Tony Yingchong Li, Tufts University ‘24
Abstract: Written by Sunzi in the fifth century BCE, The Art of War was hailed in China as a seminal military manual. The book remained a cogent source of actionable political advice throughout Chinese history because concepts such as “moral law,” “heaven,” “earth,” and “situational potential” are inherently versatile parameters. By collating key prerequisites for military success from the text, this article offers an analytical framework that may be applied to an international relations context. Through applying the framework to studying diplomatic friction between the U.S. and China in 2022, this article provides an overview to applying an ancient source of knowledge in a contemporary context. Although this alternative view does not seek to debunk or supplant more quantitative analytical methods, it works to augment traditional approaches by balancing calculation with intuition.
“Collective” and “Private Wealth” in Classical Chinese Families
Xuanlin Tang, Tsinghua University ‘24
Abstract: This paper seeks to contribute to a body of literature on classical Chinese values concerning family property. Specifically, it conducts of survey of classical Confucian texts to discuss the concepts of “collective wealth” and “private wealth” and challenges simplistic interepretations of the concept that “filial sons shall not possess private wealth.” It firstly concludes that these concepts historically reflected relationships between extended families and nuclear families, rather than current-day Western-influence conceptions of the relationship between a nuclear family and individuals. Secondly, it posits that contemporary commentators who appeal to the value of historical property ethics often overstate just how communal or elder-oriented classical Chinese familial property systems were. Although the author ultimately agrees that the concepts of “collective” and “private” property do have enduring influence on Chinese society—and that this influence merits further exploration—she also warns that readers must consider these two concepts together with the classical Confucian texts in order to avoid revisionist misconceptions.
Maritime Tightrope: The Philippines in Sino-American Competition
Yaqi Li, Jinan University ‘25 and Guantong Zhao, Jinan University ‘24
Abstract: This paper thoroughly explores how the Philippines finds a balance in the strategic competition between the United States and China, and China’s “Belt and Road” initiative. As a member of ASEAN and an ally of the United States, the Philippines faces complex challenges in balancing economic and security considerations. The paper points out that the Philippines has extensive cooperation with China in the fields of infrastructure and economy, especially closely aligned with the “Belt and Road” initiative. However, this cooperation also brings issues of debt sustainability, environmental protection, and transparency. In terms of security, the Philippines maintains close military cooperation with the United States, despite territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. The paper concludes by emphasizing that against the backdrop of intensified US-China strategic competition, the Philippines needs to find a sustainable and balanced path between economic cooperation with China and security relations with the United States.