Zhou Wenxing

Assistant Professor, School of International Studies & Research Fellow, Huazhi Institute for Global Governance, Nanjing University

Zhou Wenxing is an assistant professor at the School of International Studies and a research follow at the Huazhi Institute for Global Governance, Nanjing University. He was a Rajawali Asia Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University between 2017 and 2018. He received his LLM in international relations from Wuhan University and DPhil in public administration from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He also studied as a Joint Masters student at Université Libre de Bruxelles and a Joint PhD student at Harvard University. His recent research focuses on China-US relations and the Taiwan issue. He is an author of several edited volumes, translated books and peer-reviewed journals, and also writes commentaries for media such as CGTN and Lianhe Zaobao.

US President-elect Joe Biden gestures as he speaks during a campaign rally to support Democratic Senate candidates in Atlanta, Georgia on 15 December 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP)

Chinese academic: The US should set out to change itself, not China

Zhou Wenxing observes that the Biden administration needs to turn a new page on US-China relations. One way to do this would be to go with a derivative of the US’s engagement policy of the past. Only this time, it should not seek to change China, but change its own view of how cooperation and peaceful coexistence with China can be achieved in the next decade and beyond.
This handout photo taken and released on 3 September 2020 by Taiwan's Presidential Office shows Czech Senate Speaker Miloš Vystrčil receiving a map of Taiwan from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at the Presidential Office in Taipei. (Handout/Taiwan Presidential Office/AFP)

Failed 'coercive diplomacy'? Beijing might harden its stance on Taiwan after Czech delegation's visit

Was the recent visit of a Czech delegation led by Senate speaker Miloš Vystrčil penny wise but pound foolish? Zhou Wenxing analyses that the Czech visit may encourage further visits by democratic countries in a show of solidarity, but it is just such visible moves that might make Beijing go on the offensive.
This combination of file pictures created on 11 June 2019 shows US President Donald Trump (left) as he departs the White House, in Washington, DC, on 2 June 2019, and former US Vice President Joe Biden during the kick off his presidential election campaign in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 18 May 2019. (Jim Watson and Dominick Reuter/AFP)

Will the US abandon Taiwan?

Academics Zhou Wenxing and Wang Weinan observe the hard truth that Taiwan is often used as a strategic card to be played in the US’s relationship with China. While Biden seems to be the safer pair of hands on Taiwan policy, if Trump gets re-elected, Taiwan may be entering a game of high risk but high returns. Either way, Taiwan will have to watch for which way the political vane turns, as the winds moving them are rarely in their control.