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This paper aims to analyze the asymmetric dilemma facing the Philippines and China in the South China Sea tensions. Among American East Asian allies, the Philippines seems to stand on the frontline between two rival powers, the United States and China. Since the US declared its Pivot to Asia policy, the Philippines' foreign policy towards China has become assertive and sometimes appears reckless with some military adventures against Chinese maritime patrols and naval ships, which also further forced China to take a tougher foreign policy against the Philippines. Considering the distinctive asymmetric indicators between China and the Philippines based on military forces, economic capacity, territorial size, and population, the aggressive policy behaviors that the Philippines and China have been displaying against each other cast an inquiry on what drives the two countries into head-to-head collision. While China as the larger power vis-à-vis the Philippines as the smaller power in the relationship has aimed for control and domination of their disputed territory, the Philippines' drastic defiance has also led to China's irritation and possible frustration. Furthermore, the US' renewed attention to Asia has caused shifts of asymmetric bilateral dilemma to triangular entanglement between the US-China-Philippines. It is vital therefore to pay attention to the asymmetric interaction of states and their varying views in order to find possible solutions to the SCS tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers in this special issue are the products of a conference, 'History and China's Foreign Relations: The Achievements and Contradictions of American Scholarship, ' held at the University of Southern California in February 2008. All of us, professors, policy advisors and policy-makers, think it would be helpful if there was more informed discussion among the general public of the challenges of China's rise in the world and our responses to it, but we all acknowledge that the American public sphere is a big mess, fragmented by the apparent riches of the Internet, dumbed down to the vanishing point in the major media. Can we as scholars make some beginnings in drawing on China's long and complex history of relations with other peoples to find generalizations and patterns that help to illuminate the present for the policy elite and for the concerned public? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anson Burlingame (1820-1870), often neglected or misunderstood today, was an ardently antislavery congressman from Boston whom Abraham Lincoln appointed minister to China in 1861. Burlingame developed a Cooperative Policy that advocated peaceful means while upholding China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Chinese government subsequently appointed him China's first envoy to the Western powers. The first stop of the so-called Burlingame Mission was America, from March to September 1868. is article focuses on three topics: (1) How the mission's reception reflected the partisan struggle over Reconstruction and the push for racial equality. Republicans, the party of Reconstruction, proved sympathetic to the mission and to China, while the opposition Democrats were hostile. (2) How Burlingame presented Americans with a strongly favorable image of China to emphasize treating it with full respect and as a normal nation. (3) The Burlingame Treaty, the first equal treaty between China and a Western power after the Opium War, which sought to place China on a full and equal status in international affairs and to place Chinese in America on an equal footing with immigrants from other nations. Burlingame's friend, Mark Twain, wrote supportive articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No serious study has been published on how Chinese filmmakers have portrayed the United States and the American people over the last century. The number of such films is not large. That fact stands in sharp contrast not only to the number of "China pictures" produced in the United States, which is not surprising, but also in contrast to the major role played by Chinese print media. This essay surveys the history of Chinese cinematic images of America from the early twentieth century to the new millennium and notes the shifts from mostly positive portrayal in the pre-1949 Chinese films, to universal condemnation during the Mao years and to a more nuanced, complex, and multi-colored presentation of the last few decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1930s and 1940s, American representations of China were divided between pro-Nationalist groups, notably Henry Luce's media enterprise, and a host of 'China Hands' accused of being pro-Communist. Though these 'China Hands' came from diff erent professions - journalists (Edgar Snow, Theodore White), academics (Owen Lattimore, John Fairbank), political activists (Agnes Smedley) - they formed a distinct group of American liberal cosmopolitan intellectuals. They achieved their cultural capital through their writings on China as 'China experts.' Unlike their predecessors, they were Progressive liberals who allied themselves with the cause of China's modernization. But their vision ran against that of a Chinese cosmopolitan intellectual - Lin Yutang. With the initial support of Pearl Buck, Lin became the most well-known liberal intellectual from China and the self-styled cultural and political spokesman on U.S.-China relations in the 1940s America. Lin's debate with the 'China Hands' over American representation of China spelled the end of his 'American success.' By revisiting this debate, I do not want to re-invoke the issue of 'Who Lost China?' Instead, this article maps out a critical terrain for understanding and questioning liberal cosmopolitan diff erence over American representations of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the involvement of the American institutional initiative in the establishment of the Harvard-Yenching Institute (HYI) in 1924-28, in response to the nationalism of China. She discusses the bureaucratic trail of memorandums and reports from the archives of HYI, which was founded as an independent educational corporation at Harvard University and an office at Yenching University in Peking, China. It explores the initiatives launched by American progressive educators and philanthropists for the academic study of languages, cultures, history and societies of foreign regions, such as Asia. It demonstrates that Chine was not a passive victim, nor a simple responder in the founding of HYI.

An essay is presented on the phenomenon of amateur China experts in the 1970s and the image of socialist China that they helped to create. It explores the emphasis of visitors on the socialist approach of China to science, medicine and technology, wherein, scientific exchange has played a significant role in the reopening of the U.S.-China relations. It accounts the experiences of several American scientists and their encounters with the Maoist China.

Chinese allegations that the United States used biological weapons against Chinese troops and Korean civilians is one of the most shocking episodes of the Korean War. While the Chinese government repeatedly reprimanded the U.S. government for its uncivilized combat behavior, the U.S. government vigorously issued denials, treating the charges as an extreme propaganda maneuver applied by China in that moment of military crisis, ideological fervor, and political passion. Since then, a huge amount of scholarship has been produced on the allegation.1 None, however, provided a persuasive conclusion on the incident, mainly due to the lack of reliable sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empire is back. Once upon a time, in the era of decolonization, empires seemed like remnants of a past that would soon disappear. No more. Now, both as a reality of modern geopolitics and as a subject of academic study, empires are flourishing as never before. Although the current global power with the greatest imperial pretensions is now facing increasing difficulties in subduing resistance in one of its remote frontiers, and the American public at home would just as soon forget about this adventure in delusion, the question of the suitability of the United States for an imperial role will not soon disappear. Furthermore, China's sustained rise to the ranks of a great world power has begun to raise questions about whether China, too, will take on an imperial role, as it needs to guarantee supplies of energy for its booming economy and engage in geopolitical competition with its rivals. Like many other empires, China has also had difficulty in gaining the allegiance of the peoples on its frontiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American public discourse today about the rise of China and its implications for the United States frequently draws on broad themes and parallels from Chinese history, both to explicate China's present and to project its future. These themes and parallels draw on a picture of the Chinese past that, as recently as twenty-five years ago, was embraced by many (though by no means all) professional historians and propagated by some of them as the best means to understand contemporary China. But since the 1970s, the community of historians of China has produced work that severely undermines longstanding conventional judgments of China's past. As a consequence, the historical themes and parallels that once were thought useful in illuminating interpretation of contemporary China have been stood on their head. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]