Sample question for the final test:

At the end of the semester, each student will write a final essay focusing on one of five possible topics, all of which are dealing with China's future development path and its impacts on the world, except for one, which is about the EU’s policy towards China.

The deadline for submitting the essay is the 17^st of December 2022. The essay must be at least 4 norm pages long. The maximum amount of points a student can gain for the essay is 5.

The available topics are:

1) Policy recommendations for China's ideal trajectory 

Imagine you are a Chinese technocrat envisioning the future development of your nation. Describe the main opportunities and threats China is going to face in the future and recommend how China should respectively take advantage of them or avoid them in order to maximize its prosperity and influence by 2050. 

You might cover themes such as: Should China continue in its focus on industrial policy and advanced technologies? Should it continue with an export driven model, or seek to strengthen its domestic consumption? Is state ownership of significant enterprises a source of strength, or should it be phased out? How grave are the demographic and environmental problems the country is facing and what should be done about them? 

You are welcome to chose other topics that interest you, but please do stay within the realm of economic and deveopment policy. The essay might also include a brief section about preferable conduct on the world stage, but do not make foreign policy the center of the work.

2) How will China's success influence the position of the West in the world economy?

Will China be able to return to rapid economic growth and surpass the West, or not? 

If yes, does it mean that advanced nations are facing the prospect of further deindustrialization? If so, where might their comparative advantages lie? Is it likely they will withdraw into further protectionism in the case that Chinese competition will continue to grow stronger? How will this relative decline change Western and American self-perception? 

If no, what will prevent it from doing so and what are the sources of continuing Western success? Will the West be able to ride out the storm using its current institutions, or will it have to drastically adapt to overcome this challenge? Will there still be a transition to a multipolar world order?  

You might also tell a story of something in between, perhaps China outdo the West in some areas and not in others.

3) How will China's rise influence the position of developing countries?

Again, is it an opportunity, or a threat - but this time, from the point of view of Global South nations. Is China a welcome source of much needed investment, or is there a looming threat of unsustainable debt? Is it a useful market for raw materials and agricultural exports and source of relatively cheap machinery, or is this a new form of an unequal relationship, that will prevent poor countries from industrializing and further trap them in an inferior, peripheral position? 

What is the relevance of China's growing rift with the West? Might this allow developing countries to get a better deal, or will they become a battleground of proxy conflicts like during the Cold War?

Last but not least, is there anything developing countries might learn from China? Would it be a good idea to attempt to adopt China's economic model, or parts of it?

4) How will China's rise impact global economic governance?

Will China's rise strengthen or weaken existing multilateral institutions (WTO, IMF, WB)? Will China seek to significantly reform them, or even replace them with its own alternatives? Or will China conclude that global governance as it was created by the West suits its interests too and there is no need for large changes? 

In what direction would these changes be, why would China press for them? Would it make these institutions more inclusive, "democratic" and sensitive to the needs of developing countries? In other words, are China's preferences in harmony with those of poorer countries, and can China therefore be expected to "open the doors" for other non-Western nations? Could global governance even survive in a multipolar world with several different competing economic and political systems?

5) What should the EU’s policy towards China be during the 2020s?

Should the EU seek to mimic the restrictive US approach to China, or should it remain open to trade and investment flows to and from China? If restrictions should be imposed, then what is it that makes them necessary? Does China pose a threat to democracy and civil liberties, or even security of European countries? Or is it purely a case of pragmatic protectionism? What restrictions should Europe have, how should they be complemented by industrial policy? Finally, what do you think will be the actual EU policy towards China and why?