A capacity crowd of more than 50 students attended the Schar School Undergraduate Student Organization’s first faculty-led debate on Friday, March 29, at the Long and Kimmy Nguyen Engineering Building on George Mason University’s Fairfax Campus.
“The goal of these debates is to engage student interest in topics that are not discussed in a traditional classroom setting,” said Ameen Karim, communications manager for the organization.
As for the size of the crowd for the initial conversation, Karim said it was the result of “a topic as hotly contested as U.S.-China relations and an indication of the admiration undergraduate students have for their professors.”
Schar School of Policy and Government professors Colin Dueck, a specialist in international relations, and Ming Wan, associate dean of the Schar School who studies East Asia, discussed U.S.-China relations and the competition for regional hegemony.
Wan said that while the United States is still a dominant force, China is rapidly gaining ground. Using visual aids, Wan was able to demonstrate the rapid increase of China’s purchasing power parity, exceeding that of the United States.
Dueck asserted the best policies for the United States to enact would be to avoid open warfare, enact measured firm prudent counterpressure on Chinese influence in the region and worldwide, support regional allies, push back against China’s economic practices, and bolster U.S. deterrence in the region.
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