Maxwell School News and Commentary

Yingyi Ma, professor of sociology, says that around 2018-2019, American universities began to see a slight decrease in the number of Chinese students. “And then the pandemic hit,” Ma says. “And with the rising geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China...[it] made Chinese students hesitate to come to the United States to study.”

“To me, de-dollarization just means a government’s ability to reduce its dependence or reliance on the dollar,” says Daniel McDowell, associate professor of political science. “I think the key thing here is to try to distinguish or separate the concept of de-dollarization from the end of dollar dominance. I don’t think those two things have to go together.”

"Over the last 15 years or so, we've seen some policies aimed at promoting its [renminbi] international use, but we've also seen a lot of policies that make it less attractive," says Daniel McDowell, associate professor of political science.

“Everyone wants light and portable laser weapons but it’s far off. Essentially, you also need a portable power plant, which is unrealistic…Lasers are more hype than reality, and the U.S. is investing US$1 billion a year to bridge this gap. However, it may go on for years,” says Sean McFate, adjunct professor in Maxwell's Washington programs.

“China had economic motives to de-dollarize that predate sanction concerns,” says Daniel McDowell, associate professor of political science. “When the U.S. economy had a financial crisis, China ended up getting hurt. China figured, we should probably promote our own currency now.”

What matters to China is consumer and investor confidence, "so it is not hard to see why Chinese officials are pushing back on the argument that a population decline spells economic decline," says Dimitar Gueorguiev, associate professor of political science.

Sean McFate, adjunct professor in Maxwell's Washington programs, says China is far from being able to take the island. “China’s military is not ready to take Taiwan, which is why Xi Jinping ordered the military to be ready to take Taiwan by 2027, if told to do so,” he says.

That show of force was as much for “domestic consumption inside China” as it was for Taiwan, says retired Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, professor of practice of public administration and international affairs. And the scale and intensity of the drills  “were calibrated very, very carefully,” to minimize threat perceptions, he says.

“When China and Brazil sign an agreement like this, it’s trying to put into place the infrastructure that would make it possible to use China’s currency, but that doesn’t mean that individual firms are going to choose that,” says Daniel McDowell, associate professor of political science.