Washington Post Article Analysis

In the Washington Post article, Summers addresses the conflicting views on how to handle China’s rise in the world economy. He argues that there are two options to deal with China’s growing economic power. The global powers can either support China in “global prosperity” and allow them to be a “driver of positive social and political change” or contain and weaken China so they cannot mount any global threats (1). Summers favors the side of economic cooperation in order to allow the United States (US) and allies to have a prosperous trade alliance. The global powers cannot systematically try to weaken China and at the same time want to have profitable trading with them. This article provided an interesting focus on how and why to cooperate with China in the future. The argument was basically

Friedberg addresses the future possibilities through the lenses academic positions such as Liberal Optimists, Realists Pessimists, and smaller categories in between. The Liberal Optimists that economic interdependence, international institutions, and democratization will bring the US and China closer in cooperation and prevent any overt hostilities. Realists Pessimists think that there are “inescapable laws of nature compelling a recurrent struggle for power and survival” (16). The in-betweens such as Realists Optimists, believe that China’s power is not increasing as quickly as claimed and that their intentions are to remain modest. Liberal Pessimists addresses the domestic political dynamics of the US and China and the interactions between them that arise through the different governments. Even though he provides a deep analysis on each point view, Friedberg’s main point throughout the article is that the future is hard to predict and any one event or situation can tip the scales between cooperation and