China's External Policies under Xi Jinping and Implications for Japan

February 24, 2016 6:30 PM (finished)


Akio Takahara

(University of Tokyo)

Date/Time February 24, 2016 6:30 PM
Location Room 549 5th floor, Akamon Sogo Kenkyuto Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo　 [map]
Abstract Faced with the difficulty in promoting a “new type of major country relations” with the US, China has turned to Eurasia and launched the new Silk Road initiative. In this context, Takahara will explore why China is shooting itself in the foot by the power-based and not rule-based approach that it has taken in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, and discuss whether Xi Jinping will cancel the rapprochement with Japan if the economic downturn becomes more serious.
Bio Akio Takahara is Professor of Contemporary Chinese Politics at the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, the University of Tokyo. He received his D.Phil. in 1988 from the University of Sussex, and later spent several years as Visiting Scholar at the Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong (1989-91), the Japanese Embassy in Beijing (1996-98), the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University (2005-06), and the School of International Studies, Peking University (2014-15). Most recently he was Senior Academic Visiting Fellow at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin (January 2016). Before joining the University of Tokyo, he taught at J. F. Oberlin University (1991-95) and Rikkyo University (1995-2005). He also served as a Member of the Governing Body of the Institute of Development Studies, UK (1999-2003), and as the Secretary General of the New Japan-China Friendship 21st Century Committee (2009-14). He currently serves as a senior researcher of the Tokyo Foundation, adjunct fellow of the Japan Institute of International Affairs, and a senior researcher of the Japan International Forum.