China Seminar | 8 April 2010

Rising Frictions in US-China Relations: Sino-capitalism versus Anglo-American Capitalism

Christopher A. McNally

After a year of relative quiet, tensions in U.S.-China relations have been rising again in 2010. Trade spats, differences over Internet freedom standards, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, and China’s management of its currency are all making headlines. Dr. McNally will examine the rising tensions in U.S.-China relations by employing a macro-political economy perspective to argue that China’s reemergence is generating “Sino-capitalism” – a capitalist system that is already global in reach and differs from Anglo-American capitalism in important respects. The ascent of Sino-capitalism represents the first time that the global capitalist system is experiencing the rise of a continent-sized power that espouses values, international viewpoints, and domestic institutional arrangements and power relations fundamentally different from those characterizing the dominant Anglo-American system of capitalism since 1850.

Dr. McNally is a political economist studying the interests, institutions, and ideas underlying formations of capitalism. His present research focuses on contemporary varieties of capitalism, in particular China’s capitalist transition. Dr. McNally has held fellowships conducting fieldwork and research at Murdoch University, West Australia, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Washington in Seattle. He is a research fellow at the EWC and an editor and author of numerous books, policy analyses, editorials, book chapters and journal articles on China’s political economy and international reach.