Jane Perlez’s and William Wan’s articles in today’s papers (the New York Times and Washington Post, respectively) stand as a minor but important milestone in elite understanding of international relations in the 21st century. Though they provide only a summary of a Brookings monograph – the product of a joint effort with the International Institute for Strategic Studies at Peking University – it’s headlined in breaking news fashion: “Chinese Insider Offers Rare Glimpse of U.S.-China Frictions,” the New York Times tops Perlez’s piece.
The Chinese in question, Wang Jisi, most definitely qualifies as an insider in the Communist Party, People’s Liberation Army, and the Chinese foreign ministry. And his contribution to the study is indeed a varnish-stripped assessment of how the Chinese leaders view the United States. To the big men in Beijing, we’re no longer “that awesome.”
