The first seminar will be concerned with the following question: “Which country is to blame for the US-Chinese trade war and technological competition?”

Students shall be divided into two equally large groups, one of which will advocate for the position that the cooling of relations is the fault of the United States, whereas the other group will attempt to prove that it is in fact China who caused the dispute. In order to stake out this position, each student is going to write a position paper, at least 3 norm pages long, and submit it at least 2 days before the seminar.

It is recommended to explain your position on issues such as: China’s compliance with WTO agreements, its alleged theft of intellectual property and mistreatment of foreign investors, the costs of the trade war for consumers in the US and for American companies, the national security implications of China’s growing GDP and America’s dependence on China, or the relevance of human rights considerations (Honk Kong, Xinjiang etc.). However, it is not necessary to cover all of these topics and in fact it is allowed to focus on topics that favor your side of the argument.

Assigned reading depends on the group you are a part of:

“Pro-Chinese” group:

·       CIURIAK, Dan. The US-China Trade War: Technological Roots and WTO Responses. Global Solutions Journal. 2019, 2(4), 130-135. ISSN 1556-5068. Accessible at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3330392

·       IKENSON, Daniel J. Into the Abyss:: Is a U.S.-China Trade War Inevitable? In: Cato Institute: Free Trade Bulletin [online]. Washington, DC., 2017 [cit. 2020-12-21], 5 pages, Accessible at: https://www.cato.org/publications/free-trade-bulletin/abyss-us-china-trade-war-inevitable

„Pro-US“ group:

·       The Elements of the China Challenge. Department of State [online]. Washington, DC., 2020 [cit. 2021-8-30]. Dostupné z: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/20-02832-Elements-of-China-Challenge-508.pdf

> focus on the parts dealing with economic issues