In this first instalment of a new Young China Watchers series, YCW Director Raffaello Pantucci talks with M. Taylor Fravel about the history and context of China’s borderland relations.
Date and time:
Thur, 26 Aug 2021
1:30-2:30pm BST (8:30-9:30am EST / 8:30-9:30pm CST)
Location:
Online event
About this event:
For the most part, attention around China’s border relations focuses on its contested maritime boundaries. But China’s borderland relations are equally disputed. Across its land borders, China has a range of human, cultural and crucial economic links, and in many cases these borders are relatively recently decided, if defined at all. With India, for example, China shares a highly contested border where troops from both sides faced off last year in their first deadly clash since 1975. On the other side of the country, the border with the DPRK is more clearly defined, but the connections and links are complicated in very different ways. And up on the edge of Xinjiang at the Wakhan Corridor, China shares a border with Afghanistan, a country heading back into a period of domestic conflict which may resonate across its small direct border with China.
In this new webinar series, YCW delves into China’s borderland relations through a series of conversations with regional experts to understand the intricacies of each one — as well as any broader patterns. To inaugurate the series, YCW is delighted to host Professor M. Taylor Fravel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a world-renowned expert on China’s border relations, who will help us set the scene for the broader series and talk through the historical and contemporary issues around China’s borderland relations.
We look forward to seeing you at the discussion as Young China Watchers Director Raffaello Pantucci talks with M. Taylor Fravel about the history and context of China’s border relations.
About M. Taylor Fravel:
M. Taylor Fravel is an international relations scholar who focuses on international security, China, and East Asia. In addition to being the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and Director of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fravel is a member of the board of directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and serves as Principal Investigator for the Maritime Awareness Project. He is widely published and has two books to his name: “Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Cooperation and Conflict in China’s Territorial Disputes” (Princeton University Press, 2008) and “Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy Since 1949” (Princeton University Press, 2019).
