Correspondence: The Challenges of Asking “What China Wants”

To the Editors (Jamie Gruffydd-Jones writes):

David Kang, Jackie S. H. Wong, and Zenobia T. Chan’s article offers a much-needed challenge to the consensus that China seeks regional—if not global—hegemony. The article’s fundamental limitation is that its data does not, in fact, tell us “what China wants,” but “what China says it wants.” The authors openly acknowledge this, writing: “it is impossible to know whether the stated goals are empty rhetoric.” (p.56) But they immediately play down the concern, arguing that the words “are what China wants its own people to believe” (p. 56). This does not solve the issue, of course, because even what China wants its people to believe is not the same as what “it” actually believes.