China watcher
A China watcher, or, less frequently, Pekingologist, is a person who researches and/or reports on the
"China watcher" should not be confused for
History and nature of China watching
Cold War era
During the
Prominent China watchers in Hong Kong in the first decades after the
Post-Cold War era
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, China became seen as a major United States antagonist, which has caused more interest in China from strategists, including China watchers, rather than just sinologists. Sinologists have since lost ground in shaping the US policy on China, and have claimed that strategists "don't understand China".[8] According to Washington officials, there is "a desire for a new cold war", and The Economist wrote "expertise about China is not necessary" for China watchers, while doveish China experts lost their advisory role to the White House.[9]
Criticism
The credibility of China watchers has been subject to criticism, as many China watchers predicted extreme and conflicting scenarios, either a collapse of the PRC's economy, political system or nation, or PRC domination.
Notes
- ^ Safire, William (2008). "China watchers". Safire's Political Dictionary. Oxford University Press. pp. 118–119.
- ^ American Heritage Dictionary
- ^ Gittings 1972, p. 418
- ^ Gail Solin, "The Art of China Watching" Center for the Study of Intelligence > Studies Archive
- ^ Gittings 1972, pp. 415, 421
- ^ Gittings 1972, pp. 420
- ^ David Shambaugh, China Quarterly 142 (June 1995): 608.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
- ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
- ISBN 978-0-415-62654-5.
- ISBN 978-1-317-42410-9.
- ISBN 978-1-80043-796-8.
- ISBN 978-0-7391-6908-7.
- ISBN 978-0-19-022856-9.
- ISBN 978-1-317-42410-9.
- PMID 32836494.
References
- Richard Baum, China Watcher: Confessions of a Peking Tom (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010).
- Harry Harding, "The Changing Roles of the Academic China Watcher" (Sigur Center for Asian Studies, 1999. Trends in China Watching: The PRC at Fifty)
- .
Further reading
- Jim Peck, "The Roots of Rhetoric: The Professional Ideology of America's China Watchers," in Ed Friedman and Mark Selden, ed., America's Asia (1971).