Zhu Feng, Columnist

China Isn't a Threat to World Order

And demonizing the country isn't the best way to encourage a change in behavior.

August 8, 2016 at 9:00 PM UTC

Zhu Feng is professor of international relations and executive director of the China Center for Collaborative Studies of the South China Sea at Nanjing University. He is also co-editor of "America, China and the Struggle for World Order," along with with G. John Ikenberry and Wang Jisi.

China's undertaken reclamation at Subi Reef.
Source: DigitalGlobe/ScapeWare3d/Getty Images

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A bit of China-bashing is inevitable in any U.S. election year. Over the past month, though, after China roundly dismissed an arbitration ruling that rejected its claims in the South China Sea, a chorus of voices has angrily denounced the country as an international outlaw. Western pundits have likened China’s reaction to imperial Japan’s decision to quit the League of Nations, which eventually led to war in Asia, or even to Hitler’s trampling of the global order.

This is pure, unwarranted hyperbole. And it’s no more helpful than eruptions from Chinese right-wingers, who see the ruling as part of a conspiracy to hem in their country’s rise. If the West wants to change China’s attitude, it also needs to reexamine its own.