China in the World | China's Foreign Policy Discourse in December 2025
US-China | Europe (Ukraine) | Taiwan | Japan | South China Sea | Global South
This month’s round-up begins with two pieces from the Fudan scholar Wu Xinbo—one a Chinese-language interview and the other an English-language article in Foreign Affairs—on the possibility of a strategic accommodation between China and the US. Sharp-eyed readers will notice a not-so-subtle disparity in the framing between the English-language and Chinese-language pieces, but the idea that influence in the international system can be formally traded remains a constant.
In contrast to this transactional view, Da Wei of Tsinghua’s CISS reappropriates the logic of the Cold War “Long Peace” to characterise a messier equilibrium of “mutually assured disruption”, which could eventually develop into a situation of more stable coexistence between the US and China. More confrontationally, Renmin University’s Jin Canrong frames the US-China competition in terms of a contest over networks of “friends”, emphasising the importance of China leveraging trade links for political influence and the cen…