The G3 : Navigating US-EU-China Relations

(in disorder! )

Part I - Session 1 - Fall 2023

S. Balme & Tina Hannani
 Outline
I- Self introduction (Prof/ TA)+ course’ guidings, principles,
assignments, calendar.

II- Why this course? Why the concept of G3?

Cf. the Syllabus

III- Part I Session 1 : 1844-1949 (US-China)

-European nations & China : a very long history
-A long (largely unknown) history in common
-Love-hate relationship
-Crossed perceptions
-The influence of domestic politics (both in the US and in the PRC)
on US-China relations
-Breaks and continuities
 I- General introduction

• Welcoming remarks :
Sciences Po (a Uni + 11 research centers) & being a student at
Sciences Po

• Practical aspects :
TA : tina.hannani@sciencespo.fr
Academic Advisor : natasa.basic@sciencespo.fr
The group - Students Rep (2)
Calendar (1 session TBC/ Zoom)
Readings + following the news (ex.)
Assignments (MC + essays + readings)

Academic Freedom, teaching philosophy

 A “typical” lesson - 4 phases
1/ News, ex :
-Africa Climate Week 2023 (ACW in Kenya)
-the G20 summit in India
-the COP 28 in the United Arab Emirates
-75th anniversary of the 1948 declaration

2/ Recap

3/ Course / Break /Course

4/ Q&A

Sources of information within the french environment :

-France Culture / RFI
-Le Monde
-Critique internationale
-CERI
 II- Our approach to “the G3 model”
- decentring our perspectives, a state of mind
-US-China & vice versa / EU-China & vice versa / EU-US relations &
vice versa
-Less theory, more facts based analysis
-Not a western/european centric approach (exs : the 1948 Universal
declaration of HR ; 1955 Bandung conference, The first large-scale
Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference = Bandung stated aims were
to promote Afro-Asian economic and cultural cooperation and to oppose
colonialism/ neocolonialism by any nation + an important step towards the
eventual creation of the Non-Aligned Movement (Group 77)
-Cf. Souleymane Bachir Diagne (ubuntu)
(ex : Xu Zeyu, Zhai Xiang, “The view from Beijing : America’s “mirage”
of strength”, US-China perception monitor August 2021 ; empathy), etc.
 Why the concept of G3?
a) The “G0” (G-zero) or the zero-sum competition

• “Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero

World”, Ian Bremmer, 2012.
-no country or group of countries has the political and economic
leverage to drive an international agenda or provide global public
goods.

• ”The China Trap : U.S. Foreign Policy and the Perilous Logic
of Zero-Sum Competition”, Jessica Chen Weiss, Foreign Affairs
09.2022.
 b) The G20 option (the maximalist option)

-2000s/ “the BRICs moment”

-The G20 does not produce well-coordinated policies and “no one
wants to take charge in the new global order" (Ian Bremmer)

=As global leadership decreases, clashes between countries

are also increasing (rc. US/PRC)

cf. Sept. 9-10 2023

 c) The G20 = G 2+0!

-At a minimum, "without a strong G-2, the G-20 will disappoint”,

The G2 = CHIMERICA (Niall Fergusson)

-Washington/Beijing consensus (Hu Jintao) = the 2 largest economies; trading nations +

polluters.

-“The Chinese Dream (中国梦) of the Great Rejuvenation of the Nation”, Xi JInping
http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/xjptgoc/xjptgoc.shtml
= the centrality of the Sino-American relations since the Obama administration (Justin Lin/
Fred Bergsten, 2005).
 ● The G+2 option / “The Thucydides' Trap”
Ref : Graham Allison, Destined for War: Can America
and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?, 2017.

• The Thucydides' Trap

• the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta had been

inevitable because of Spartan fears of the growth of Athenian
power.

Huge influence in Chinese politics and state media

Counter arguments
---Richard Hanania (Columbia U)
---Joseph Nye (Harvard)
 d) The necessity of the G3 option

1/ Most American and Chinese analysts have missed the simple fact that the
EU-China relationship is NOW in many ways as dense as the US-China
relationship.

1. The triangular relationship is crucial to the world on many aspects :

demography ; economy ; politics ; culture, etc.
2. The G3 is producer of global governance

3. 1-Europe is a major source of high technology to China & to the US.

4. 2-It is a larger foreign investor in China than the US
5. 3. The US is much better off having Europe in a smaller club as a partner than
being ganged up in the G2.
6. 4- China wants sometimes a European hedge against the US, and thus a G-3
world.
 PART I - Session 1:

The US, the European Nations and Imperial China

1844-1949
 Western/ European Nations & China /
A very long history in common

-Hellenistic Period (-300/-30 approx.)

-Roman Empire (-20/+500 approx.)(silk)
-Byzantine Empire (300-1500)
-Marco Polo (13th C.)
-Jesuit China Missions (16-19th C.)
-Opium Wars (1839-42 ; 1856-60)
-Boxer Rebellion (1900), etc.

“The US : the world’s oldest Constitution the youngest country”

 US/China, a long history in common (1/ 2)

-An unknown history

-A love-hate relationship :
a) nativism (racism) vs “meiguo” (the beautiful country/the American
dream /China’s US “fever” 美国) ;
The Chinese Exclusion Acts :
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration
b-The US, defender of China (1844-1945) vs racism = an a-historical view
of China
c-The religious and business sides of the relation : a paternalistic view of
China: a martyr country/European and Japanese colonisation ;
d- The importance of domestic politics (capitalism/communism)
e-Conflictual crossed perceptions, etc.
 A long history in common (2/2)
• The youngest country (US) vs among the oldest civilization
(China)
• From the US, China is the ideal « enemy » (the new
frontier) ; a missionary soil.
• Opportunities for new markets/ US entrepreneurial ethos
-A locus for fight for democracy and constitutional rights
-A threat to US superpower: China is the largest foreign
creditor of the United States holding +20% of the U.S.
national debt.
 Timeline & the US strategy/perception

• An early mercantilist policy (The Wangxia Treaty ; the (US) Open

Door Policy (1899-1900) ; demand of open trade) opportunities in
China with all countries on an equal basis,
• The Nativist Movement : the Chinese Exclusion Acts
(1880-1940), the Yellow Peril theory,
• The expansion of protestant missionary activity
• 1919 / Pdt Woodrow Wilson’s shift of policy (the 21
conditions agreement),
• 1920s-1949/ Support to the KMT against the CCP --”the two
Chinas (accidental states)”.
 Perceptions from China

1/ America, a country at odds with the British?

2/ The gold rush (1840s-1850s)/旧金山 San Francisco

3/ But also, America is portrayed as a country with various vices,

particularly drinking, opium, sex, etc.

4/ Following the 1911 Revolution, many reform minded Chinese

intellectuals had a more admiring image
 I- A mercantilist approach
• 1783, the Chinese Queen sailing ship: “American trade with China
began as early as 1784 (silk, tea, furniture).
• The treaty of Wangxia 望厦条约 Macao : the 1st bilateral, formal
treaty (« the most favored nation clause»)
• 1844 = an American counterpart to the Anglo-Chinese Treaty of
Nanjing that ended the First Opium War in 1842.
-Opening of 5 ports cities.
-Article 17 & art. 18, the extra territoriality principle
 The US open door policy (1899-)

-The Spanish American War ended (1898)

-US Secretary of State John Hay

-The US was worried it was going to lose trading access with China, (post
Tianjin Treaty)

-The Open Door Policy remained in effect until Japan’s defeat in WWII in
1945 and the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
Ex. Joseph CROW, CARL. 400 Million Customers: The Experiences - Some
Happy, Some Sad of an American in China, and What They Taught Him (1937).
II- The nativist movement (1840s-) & the Chinese Exclusion Acts
(1880s-1940s) (eventually different from Washington policy)

-1830s : nativism emerged as a political movement when immigration to

the US increased.
-Throughout American history, different minority groups have received the
brunt of nativist sentiment.
Ex : Catholic tradition seen as running counter to American ideals.
Populations discriminated : anarchists, socialists, the “non-whites” (during
the 19th century people of Irish, Italian, and Polish nationalities were also
considered to be “non-white”) ;
--The Chinese Exclusion Acts :
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration (cf.
syllabus)
–The nativist movement was “successful” in helping to get the federal
government to pass legislation restricting Chinese immigration that was
enforced from the 1880’s until the 1940’s.
--In the 1868 Burlingame Treaty with China, the U.S. government had
encouraged the immigration of Chinese nationals to the United States.
--The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (amended in 1884) suspended all
immigration of Chinese to the US.
-1888 The Scotts Act
The anti-Chinese movement was successful in renewing the Chinese
Exclusion Act in 1892 and establishing a permanent ban in 1902.

Chinese immigration remained outlawed until 1943.

Newspaper illustration of the anti-Chinese rioting in
Denver, Colorado, in 1880. (Library of Congress)
 The Yellow Peril theory until the 1930s
(sino-japanese invasion)
--The Mask of Fu Manchu, 1932 by Charles Brabin,
- aims at “the supremacy of the yellow race” ;
- Created by Sax Rohmer in 1913 (Hollywood)
 III- Protestant american missionaries

- From 1875-1900, was a time of increasing awareness in China or the

importance of modernization; it was also a period of great expansion
there in Protestant missionary activity.

1870 : 200 missionaries in China sent by American societies

1900 = 1000 ; 1930s = 10 000

2 developments in place
 IV- 1911, the founding of a Republic in China &
the role of the US

-Sept. 2, 1911, Sun Yat-sen (KMT 1866-1925) and Wong Won-Su

took the northern route while the other team, consisting of Jung Oi
Wong and C.S. Yook, traversed southern US to speak about the
Qing and raise money.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?vpsrc=0&ctz=480&ie=UTF
8&msa=0&t=m&source=embed&ll=37.090240000000016%2C-95.7128
9100000001&spn=33.435463%2C56.25&z=4&mid=1NrbtesefUxqFHP8
GVVZrWlYjDDg
 1919 and post 1919 shift of policy
1919, Year One of the US century
-Woodrow Wilson’s National Self-determination

-The Versailles Conference (1919): the Western powers, W. Wilson included, ceded
German interests on the Shandong peninsula to Japan.

-The May 4th Movement (五四运动)

From that point onward, 2 ideas of America competed

a) the admiring liberal image
b) the anti-american image of marxist-leninist intellectuals…
--Pro-Americanism remained an elite phenomenon : the Chiang Kai-shek regime
sometimes being seen as an “American puppet” : 1927, 1937, 1945...
--Chiang Kaishek & Soong Meiling.
Soong Mei-Ling, “Addresses To
The House Of Representatives
And To The Senate,” February
18, 1943 :
https://www.americanrhetoric.co
m/speeches/soongmaylingspeech
tocongress.htm
“At any time, it would be a
privilege for me to address
Congress, more especially this
present august body which will
have so much to do in shaping the
destiny of the world. In speaking
to Congress I am literally
speaking to the American people”.
 The KMT & the US

1933

1931 1945

1948
 At the opposite / “Red Star over China” by Edgar Snow &
Helen Foster Snow (1937)
–Western sympathy towards Mao and the CCP
-US liberals interpreted Mao as being anti-fascist and progressive.
-E. Snow : the origin of the myth that the Chinese Communists were
"agrarian reformers”.
 1949- 1979
Love & Hate Relations (continuing)

1-Oct. 1 1949 : The “loss of China” (the Marshall mission) lead

to the founding of the PRC
2-Mao/Maoism and America : cross perspectives
3-1971 : UN & America’s “Two Chinas policy”/ Nixon in China,
02.1972: a quasi-alliance against the USSR
4-Jan. 1979, the US changed its diplomatic recognition of
Chinese government from Taipei to Beijing = a “post-Cultural
revolution” China leading to a “US fever”.

Anti-China and anti-American(ism) sentiments (1949-1979)-

paradigms shifts : continuities and changes (post 1979)
 I- 1949 : The “loss of China” (unexpected) vs the
founding of the PRC

--Oct. 1949 on Tiananmen Square ; the KMT flee to Taiwan : a

geopolitical disaster which allowed the formation of a Sino-Soviet
bloc ;
--During WW2, Franklin D. Roosevelt had assumed that China,
under Chiang Kai-shek's leadership, would become a great power
after the war, along with the U.S., the UK & the USSR
-Noam Chomsky, “It is only possible to lose something that one
owns” vs Yu Maochun : “the situation reflects American partisan
politics rather than Chinese reality”.
-US China White Paper
-A pro-USSR China 1950s
 Timeline (1949-1979) : eras of domestic turmoils (Maoism &
Washington

• Korean War (1950-53) + the 1962 Sino-Indian War

• Maoist campaigns
• The US in the Vietnam War (1955-1975) + the question of Taiwan
• 1964, 1st China nuclear test
• The 1968 Civil Rights Movement vs. The Great Proletarian
Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)

• 1971, PRC representation at the UN.

• The U.S.-PRC Joint Communiqués (1972/The Shanghai communiqué,
1979, 1982) (三个联合公报)
• Jan. 1979, the US changed its diplomatic recognition of Chinese
government from Taipei to Beijing.
• State visit by Deng Xiaoping to the U.S (1979邓小平访美)
 Campaigns against America (1950s-1970s) - David
Shambaugh
-Throughout the Maoist era, very negative images in the Chinese
Communist media were reinforced in society at large.
-Through propaganda campaigns (运动) against America : the U.S.
became the target of Chinese ire
-The "Resist America, Aid Korea" Campaign 抗美援朝(kang Mei
yuan Chao)
-The 1954, 1958 Taiwan Straits crisis + calls to "liberate Taiwan"
-The 1960s Civil Rights movement
-American-trained intellectuals also became specific targets in 1957
and during the cultural revolution (1966-1976) : ("bourgeois
American outlooks" and were banished to labor camps)
Taiwan Straits conflicts/US-Taiwan
troops