Susan Shirk: The fragile superpower and trepidation over Trump

Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo

Culture, China News, Hangzhou, Chinese, International Relations, Chongqing, Beijing, Sichuan, Currentaffairs, China, Politics, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, China Economy, News, China Politics, Business, Film, Shenzhen

4.8 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2017

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A top diplomat during the Clinton administration, author of the influential book China: Fragile Superpower: How China’s Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise, research professor and chair of the 21st Century China Center at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego, and co-author of a new high-level task force report on U.S.-China policy, Susan Shirk is one of the most sought-after voices on Chinese politics and U.S.-China relations. Today’s Sinica Podcast features an interview with Susan recorded live on January 30 during the Chinese New Year celebrations at the Long US-China Institute at UC Irvine. Susan talks about how China and its role in the world have dramatically changed in the last decade; how the country’s leaders have grown increasingly fragile and fearful of disloyalty even as their power has grown; and how those leaders likely share her trepidation that the Trump administration may recklessly “trash the entire relationship” between the two countries. Recommendations: Jeremy: His new hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, a wonderful place to visit, contrary to the misconceptions that many coastal Americans have about the South. Also Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Kaiser lives. Susan: The School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego, which has a special focus on Asia and a strong group of China scholars. The China Focus blog, written by students at UC San Diego. The China 21 Podcast, produced by the 21st Century China Center. Kaiser: The Sellout, a satire novel by Paul Beatty, the first American author to win the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this special live edition of the Cynica podcast, a week of discussion of current affairs in China, produced in partnership with SUPChina.
0:16.0	SubChina is the best way to keep up on what's happening in China with a daily email newsletter, a smartphone app,
0:21.1	and at the website sub-China.com. It's a feast of business, political, and cultural news about a nation
0:26.7	that is reshaping the world. I'm Kaiser Guo, joined here at UC Irvine in the Great California
0:32.6	Republic. And of course, the California public is where Jeremy and I are getting ready to move once you all get it together and actually affect secession.
0:44.1	So please hurry.
0:46.0	We are absolutely thrilled to be joined today by one of the giants among China watchers.
0:50.4	Susan Shirk, Professor Shirk, has had a distinguished career both in diplomacy and in academia. She was
0:55.8	assistant deputy secretary of state during the Clinton administration and is author of a number of
1:00.2	highly influential books on China. She now teaches at UC San Diego's prestigious School of Global
1:05.1	Policy and Strategy, or GPS as it's known, and she heads the UCSD 21st Century China Center. Susan Shirk, it's wonderful
1:13.1	to see you again. And thanks so much for taking the time to join us here in Irvine.
1:16.9	My pleasure. Good to be here. So a very happy year of the rooster to all of you. And let's all
1:22.8	get started here as there's so much to talk about. So Susan, in 2008, which was perhaps the height of global admiration for the achievements
1:30.8	of the Chinese government and foreign invest enthusiasm for the country, you published a book
1:35.0	called Fragile Superpower, How China's Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise.
1:41.0	And the book takes a sober look at the many problems facing the Communist Party.
1:45.0	I think the subtitle makes it clear that many of the big issues facing the ruling party are
1:49.5	internal and domestic, ranging from how the state can keep control of the passions of patriotic
1:54.5	youth, to the possibility of irrational responses to international crises if there is a perceived
2:00.0	loss of face. Your book points out the
2:02.4	paradox that the more developed and prosperous the country becomes, the more insecure and
	...

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