Charlie Billo
Thursday 12:00 – 2:00 PM
January 12 through February 9, 2006
Hanover Senior Center
Recent cover stories in Newsweek, Business Week and other popular media have drawn attention to the rise of China as an economic and military power, challenging U.S. strategic interests in the Pacific and more globally. Newsweek, for example, recently pointed out that China is the powerful new force on the world scene. It is the fastest growing large economy, has the second largest foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest army, and the fourth largest defense budget.
This year's annual assessment by the Pentagon's Pacific Command highlights several new Chinese military capabilities, including a naval buildup. A recent U.S. News and World Report special asks at what point does China become a real danger?
This course will investigate several key parameters of China's rise to prominence on the world scene---economic, political, military, and technological. Through class discussion, PBS documentaries, and articles by academic researchers and military experts we will strive for a better appreciation of the nature of the challenge posed by China, penetrating beneath media hype and alarmist treatments in the popular press. The goal will be a better understanding of our strategic relationship with China and the challenge Beijing poses to long-term U.S. diplomatic, security, and economic interests. The reading for the course will include The Chinese Century by Oded Shenkar.
CHARLIE BILLO is a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer currently affiliated with the Hong Kong-based consulting firm Artmark, Ltd. He and his wife live in Hanover.
