I had the exciting opportunity to help Dr Elizabeth Ingleson with the research for her upcoming book China and the United States since 1949: An International History. The aim of the research project was to analyse the changes and continuities in U.S. administrations’ perceptions of China from 1949 to the present day. The research primarily revolved around the discussion of six key themes that are crucial for Dr Ingleson’s book: US foreign policy-makers’ descriptions of China’s population size, the Chinese state, the Chinese people, predictions regarding China’s economy, meanings of engagement, and geographic size. This analysis advances our understanding of what has developed into the world’s most essential bilateral relationship and serves to comprehend U.S. foreign policy rhetoric towards China. In a second stage of the project, I researched and analysed the Chinese perceptions of the afore-mentioned key themes. All findings are based on primary sources that I collated for Dr Ingleson. The project perfectly suited my academic interest in China and world politics. I am very delighted that I was paired with such an inspiring academic with whom I do not only share the same curiosity about China, but also a passion for the study of Mandarin.
Methods
The first goal was to create a database of the most important U.S. government documents regarding China since 1949, including presidential speeches, interviews, CIA reports, congressional records, and journal articles written by members of U.S. administrations. I first conducted a literature review of the secondary literature on US-China relations, using Dr Ingleson’s pre-selected literature list from which I filtered out all primary sources that were mentioned in the secondary literature. I subsequently researched each document and uploaded them to a shared Zotero database. Most of the documents were accessible online, but especially the earlier documents were more difficult to find. For some speeches and articles I consulted the online archives of the New York Times or the Foreign Affairs Magazine. After collating 57 primary sources, I employed discourse analysis to code the documents for Dr Ingleson’s research themes. This signifies that I filtered out each quotation that related to the research themes. Lastly, I observed the changes and continuities of each research theme. I discussed these findings with Dr Ingleson and she explained which observations were particularly useful for her research and what was unexpected. My favourite aspect of this research method were the constant exchanges and insightful conversations I had with Dr Ingleson. Throughout the project it was interesting to see which documents and quotes she would use for her book. In the second part of the project, I continued using discourse analysis to trace the same key themes in China’s representation to the external world. I analysed the 1970s and 1980s issues of the Beijing Review, China’s international newspaper. The Beijing Review offers an extensive online archive, which I used to obtain these documents. This analysis provided me with a more nuanced perspective that is not limited to U.S. policy-makers. I found it fascinating to go beyond U.S. government sources and explore China’s narrative of the same history.
Results
The findings that mostly stood out are related to perceptions of China’s economy, the people, the state, and population size. What became particularly noticeable were US policymakers’ underestimations of China’s economy, the consistent belief that the Chinese government’s economic plans could not be achieved and that China’s development is dependent on the U.S. economy. Interestingly, there was an intensified belief after Tiananmen that China’s economic growth would lead to democratisation, whereas before economic growth was only viewed as leading to economic freedoms, but not political freedoms.
Regarding the Chinese people, the distinction between the people and the state became most evident, as it is very typical for the Cold War era, when US policymakers viewed Communists governments as aggressive and oppressive, whereas the people were depicted as peaceful and virtuous. Indeed, the Chinese people were described as benevolent and disciplined. In line with this idea, there has been a consistent foreign policy narrative on how Chinese people do not trust their government and how China’s economic growth imposes a burden on the people who are portrayed as suffering to achieve China’s economic goals. Another important observation is that US policymakers, especially presidents, often presented themselves as experts on China’s civilisation, referring to their knowledge of the long history of Chinese culture.
Over time, U.S. policymakers have depicted China’s leadership as arrogant and violent. However, a surprising continuity was the emphasis on the leaders’ age. Since Mao the notion that the leader would soon pass away became fundamental to US foreign policy rhetoric and was carried on beyond the Mao era. Apart from downgrading Chinese leaders because of their age, U.S. policymakers equally showed a tendency to make prescriptions for them.
Furthermore, China’s population size has been utilised to justify U.S. engagement with China, starting with Johnson, but most notably Nixon, who used the idea that the world cannot be peaceful if China’s population is isolated. After the discourse analysis of the Beijing Review, it became apparent that this argument using China’s large population number to justify foreign policy actions has also been used by Chinese policymakers themselves.
Personal Experience
This project has undoubtedly encouraged me to further pursue my interest in US-China relations and envision a career in academia. The work on this project has in many ways exceeded my expectations and expanded my understanding of the academic world. I am immensely grateful for the enriching connection that I have built with Dr Ingleson and excited about her book. Moreover, I am pleased that I was given the opportunity to accompany her to academic conferences and even present our research project at the LSE Interdisciplinary Research Conference. Presenting at a conference with primarily post-graduate students has been an enjoyable challenge from which I learned valuable practical skills on top of the research skills I gained from this project. I am also very thankful for Ade, Joss, and Vivekah, who have provided excellent support over the course of my research assistantship.