China’s Upstart Strategy: A Conversation with Dr. Oriana Skylar Mastro
Jun 7, 2024
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Dr. Oriana Skylar Mastro discusses China's rise to power using the 'Upstart' approach, emphasizing entrepreneurship and strategic gaps. She explores China's strategies of emulation, exploitation, and entrepreneurship, contrasting them with past rising powers. Recommendations for US policy include encouraging beneficial emulation and exploring new strategies for international security cooperation.
China's rise is attributed to strategies of emulation, exploitation, and entrepreneurship.
Understanding China's strategic choices requires evaluating US perceptions, competitive advantages, and potential gaps.
US policy should focus on enhancing entrepreneurship and innovation to counter China's strategies effectively.
Deep dives
China's Rapid Rise to Power
China has impressively transformed from a country emerging out of civil war and the chaos of the Cultural Revolution to a global military powerhouse within a few decades. Dr. Oriana Mastro discusses her book, 'Upstart, How China Became a Great Power,' shedding light on China's remarkable ascendancy to power status. The book delves into China's economic, military, foreign and economic policies, emphasizing its unique approaches challenging traditional US-centric assumptions.
China's upstart Strategy
The term 'Upstart' reflects China's innovative approach similar to start-ups entering established markets by identifying and exploiting competitive gaps. Dr. Mastro argues that China's strategy includes emulation, exploitation, and entrepreneurship as key components. Emulation involves adopting strategies similar to the US in select areas, while exploitation focuses on competing where the US is weaker, and entrepreneurship drives original approaches like the Belt and Road Initiative.
Factors Influencing China's Strategy
China's strategy is influenced by evaluating US effectiveness, the US interpretation of its behaviors, efficiency, liabilities, and potential gaps to exploit. Dr. Mastro highlights China's nuanced decision-making, balancing between emulation, exploitation, and entrepreneurship based on these factors. This complex mix determines China's stance across foreign policy, economic policy, and military policy, shaping its strategic direction.
Future Trends in China's Strategy
Analyzing the evolving landscape, Dr. Mastro anticipates certain factors' importance changing over time. While the consideration of US perceptions may decrease in significance, competitive advantages, liabilities, and strategic gaps will likely continue shaping China's strategies. As China's power grows, adaptations within emulation, exploitation, and entrepreneurship approaches may reflect shifts in focus areas and strategic priorities.
Recommendations for US Response
Dr. Mastro suggests the US reevaluate existing strategies and avoid indiscriminate emulation of China's successes. She advocates for enhancing US entrepreneurship by identifying and addressing gaps in US strategy that China exploits, promoting innovative approaches in diplomatic, military, and economic domains. The recommendations aim to enhance US competitiveness and strategic efficacy in navigating the evolving global landscape.
Conclusion
Dr. Mastro's insights on China's rise and strategic choices offer a valuable perspective on understanding global power dynamics. Her analysis underscores the need for adaptability and innovation in US policy to effectively engage with China's evolving strategies while safeguarding US interests and maintaining a competitive edge in an increasingly dynamic geopolitical environment.
In this episode of the ChinaPower podcast, Dr. Oriana Skylar Mastro joins us to discuss her new book, Upstart, which provides a fresh perspective on China’s rise to great power status. Dr. Mastro analyzes China’s innovative buildup of power over the past 30 years through three distinct approaches: emulation, exploitation, and entrepreneurship. Dr. Mastro explores ways China has mirrored U.S. activities, capitalized on U.S. blind spots, and embraced innovative approaches. Dr. Mastro argues that the Upstart lens allows us to better understand Chinese strategic calculations. Finally, Dr. Mastro explains her recommendations to US policy makers, such as increasing U.S. “entrepreneurship” with respect to disputes in the South China Sea, and provides her predictions for China’s approach in the coming decade.
Dr. Oriana Skylar Mastro is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Courtesy Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, where her research focuses on Chinese military and security policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, war termination, and coercive diplomacy. She is also a nonresident scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and continues to serve in the United States Air Force Reserve at the Pentagon. For her contributions to U.S. strategy in Asia, she won the Individual Reservist of the Year Award in 2016 and 2022 (FGO). She has published widely, including in International Security, Security Studies, Foreign Affairs, Journal of Strategic Studies, The Washington Quarterly, the Economist and the New York Times.
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