Interpreting China

The Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies has quietly built up an archive of 200 translations of recent Chinese speeches, academic papers and government documents in hopes of offering a better understanding of Beijing's ambitions and fears.   The project models itself after how the U.S. sought a laserlike understanding of the Soviet leadership during the Cold War. "All too often we're relying on what others are saying about China, but we want to stop and listen to the discussion, the dialogue, the discourse that's happening within the country," the project's co-director, Jude Blanchette, says.   The database is changing the way webinars are held. On Monday, CSIS hosted a panel of defense experts and asked the participants to read 87 pages of translated Chinese commentary before coming on stage.   "Naively, I was expecting Sun Tzu and I got Thomas Schelling and Glenn Snyder," one panelist said, reflecting on his surprise at what he saw.   Former Pentagon official Elbridge Colby noted that one of the papers correctly construed that a lot of the actions the U.S. is taking in building up deterrence are defensive in nature and are status-quo oriented.   "It gave me a little bit more confidence that if we match our strategic logic in a way that is consistently status-quo oriented, strategically defensive, even if it might involve operational or tactical offensive actions, that we should be able to communicate the point," Colby said.   It comes amid a bipartisan hardening of positions in Washington over China. Will it change the way China is discussed?   Read the full story here.	View in browser
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	Indo-Pacific Diaries March 8, 2023

	U.S. translation project opens window on China's ambitions, fears The Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies has quietly built up an archive of 200 translations of recent Chinese speeches, academic papers and government documents in hopes of offering a better understanding of Beijing's ambitions and fears.   The project models itself after how the U.S. sought a laserlike understanding of the Soviet leadership during the Cold War. "All too often we're relying on what others are saying about China, but we want to stop and listen to the discussion, the dialogue, the discourse that's happening within the country," the project's co-director, Jude Blanchette, says.   The database is changing the way webinars are held. On Monday, CSIS hosted a panel of defense experts and asked the participants to read 87 pages of translated Chinese commentary before coming on stage.   "Naively, I was expecting Sun Tzu and I got Thomas Schelling and Glenn Snyder," one panelist said, reflecting on his surprise at what he saw.   Former Pentagon official Elbridge Colby noted that one of the papers correctly construed that a lot of the actions the U.S. is taking in building up deterrence are defensive in nature and are status-quo oriented.   "It gave me a little bit more confidence that if we match our strategic logic in a way that is consistently status-quo oriented, strategically defensive, even if it might involve operational or tactical offensive actions, that we should be able to communicate the point," Colby said.   It comes amid a bipartisan hardening of positions in Washington over China. Will it change the way China is discussed?   Read the full story here.
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