As an important manifestation of a global power’s status and strength in the field of knowledge, regional and country studies require comprehensive research from multiple perspectives.

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Why did Chinese scholars of American studies fail to predict the results of the US presidential election? Admittedly, scholars in the US were blindsided as well, but for Chinese scholars, a contributing factor was flawed research on US society. Current studies of the US by Chinese scholars mainly concentrate on its foreign strategies, while research on American internal affairs, and those of grassroots political views in particular, are lacking.

 

Global Strategy
Today, China is more in the world spotlight than ever before, and strengthening regional and country studies serves China’s global strategy. Sun Xiaomeng, dean of the School of Asian and African Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said regional and country studies are an important manifestation of a global power’s status and strength in the field of knowledge. The rise of the discipline often indicates the rise of the global power’s status.

Yang Baijiang, deputy dean of the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, suggested that China should begin to constructively engage in global governance while more actively participating in and leading world affairs. This requires more specific approaches to decision-making and precision in implementation. Research on regions and countries should provide adequate knowledge reserves.

Tian Wenglin, a deputy research fellow from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that regional and country studies are embracing the times. Pushed by the “Belt and Road” initiative, related studies in China, particularly those on Asian and African regions, are becoming notable research fields.

 

Team building
Although China has made remarkable progress in regional and country studies, related research still lags behind in terms of scale, level and quality, and fails to offer enough resources to be useful reference material. Among the many problems China is facing, a structural imbalance in the research teams is the most notable.

Yang said that most of the scholars doing international research were foreign language majors in college, with literature as their disciplinary focus. In order to solve this awkward condition, a research system characterized by cross-disciplinary work should be built.

Regional and country studies in China have long focused on comparative politics, international relations, and global security and strategy, while ignoring micro-level problems. They are lacking in social practice and fieldwork. Luan Jianzhang, deputy director of the Research Laboratory at the International Department, CPC Central Committee, said that China’s mistaken prediction about the next US president is a case in point. He suggested that regional and country studies cannot focus exclusively on diplomatic strategies. More attention should be paid to other aspects, such as  national competitiveness and development trends. Likewise, Liu Jiangyong, a professor from the Institute of International relations at Tsinghua University, said that country studies require comprehensive research from political, economic, cultural, historical and philosophical perspectives.

In addition, Yang pointed out that the overall international studies need support from regional and country studies, while the latter cannot be limited to too narrow a research field to form a multi-dimensional research system. Related research should be considered from the perspective of international studies as a whole.

 

Chinese theory
Most of the shared region and country research theories, including core concepts and research paradigms, are from Western countries, so they are obviously limited by the distinctive features inherited from Western history and ideology.

Wang Suolao, dean of the School of International studies at Peking University, said that when it comes to theoretical misinterpretations in Middle East studies, society should evolve towards secularism according to the Western theories. However, in the Middle East region, where the relationship between the government and religious beliefs is extremely complicated, the fact is that for some countries, after a long trend of Westernization and secularization, many problems brought by modernization were not solved. Thus these countries turned their attention back to local culture to seek ways out. According to Western theory, such change is rolling back the clock, but circumstances have proven that the Middle Eastern countries have successfully discovered the development paths suitable to their own situation.

Sun pointed out that China should build up its own knowledge structure, theoretical system and research methodology based on Chinese domestic conditions. Only by discarding complete reliance on the Western theory could original theories and innovative ideas be brought forth.

 

Mao Li is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.