"Let China sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world."
Napoleon Bonaparte
"The US cannot stop China's rise. It just has to live with a bigger China, which will be completely novel for the U.S., as no country has ever been big enough to challenge its position... It is not possible to pretend that this is just another big player. This is the biggest player in the history of the world."
Lee Kuan Yew (former Prime Minister of Singapore)
Will China supersede America as the dominant world power?
The major focus on this course will be the study of the People's Republic of China. China has become, and will continue to be, an important world economic superpower. It is critical for Americans to have a solid knowledge base of China if they are to be prepared in their future lives and careers in our increasingly globally interdependent world. This course will bring the students face to face with the diversity and complexity of China, and how it has come to play a major role in the world, economically, politically, militarily, and culturally. In other words, the debate on US-China needs more "China" - not a crude and blurred caricature but a sharp and realistic portrait of America's most formidable competitor.
The world is now in the midst of a fundamental change in world history. This change will entail a basic realignment of economic and political power that will change the world balance of power. Whether we like it or not, the future will no longer be dominated solely by United States or Western Europe. China will use its new wealth and political power to challenge the nations of the West, particularly the United States.