Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The People Power that has overthrown regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and continues to create tremors elsewhere in the Middle East has spawned debate about its ripple effect on China.

In Australia two prominent Sydney Morning Herald journalists hold different views, not about the repressive nature of the system in China, but about its ability to prevent a popular upsurge.

International editor Peter Hartcher is inclined to think that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), at the very least, is worried and nervous about the revolutionary upsurge in the Middle East and its possible impact on China.

An article in the current issue of the influential Foreign Affairs magazine argues that to avoid military competition between the US and a rising China, Washington should consider making concessions to Beijing, including the possibility of backing away from its commitment to Taiwan.

In the article, titled “Will China’s Rise Lead to War? Why Realism Does Not Mean Pessimism,” Charles Glaser, a professor of political science and international affairs and director of the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, argues that the rise of China will be “the most important international relations story of the twenty-first century.”