US-China Relations: A Class to Create Informed Citizens

This semester, students in Christopher Heurlin 's class US-China Relations (GOV 2540, ASNS 2061) are taking a deep dive into this globally important geopolitical story and the history behind it.

"The broad goal of the course," explained the associate professor of government and Asian studies, "is to prepare students to be informed observers or even participants in US-China relations in their post-Bowdoin lives."

Students begin with a historical overview, including a focus on the Opium Wars of the nineteenth century, in which Western powers used military force to gain access to Chinese markets. "This period is particularly important," said Heurlin, "because it marks the beginning of a contemporary Chinese nationalist narrative of the 'hundred years of national humiliation' that ended only when the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949."

This class then moves through the major events that shaped US-China relations in the second half of the twentieth century: the Korean War, the Sino-Soviet split, the Vietnam war, rapprochement between the US and China, and the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989.

Another major task for the class, Heurlin added, is to understand how US-China relations are situated within a broader regional context. "We decenter the US and China and look at regional issues with an eye toward nationalism and territorial disputes, examining the South China Sea, the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, and Taiwan."

As the course progresses, students will try to understand how foreign policy is made in both Washington and Beijing and look at how bureaucratic perspectives shape the policy preferences of various actors. "The highlight of this is when students take on the roles of various principals (secretary of state, secretary of commerce, CIA director, etc.) in a simulation of US National Security Council responses to a fictional cyber hacking scenario." The aim of this exercise, explained Heurlin, is to teach students that "how you stand depends on where you sit" and make them approach issues from a perspective that they might not otherwise encounter.

The class concludes with an in-depth look at some current news stories. "I typically send students one or two news articles before each class that highlight important topics that, ideally, we can link to course readings."