Realpolitik 101

After lots of fun at the Supercomputer Center and InfoSpace, our group had the rare privilege of a class with Dr. Shen Dingli, Director of the Center for American Studies and the founder of the Program on Arms Control and Regional Security at Fudan University.  Dr. Shen and Mr. Nicholson know each other through team-teaching a summer course in Chinese foreign policy for the Glimpses of China program; Dr. Shen is one of China's foremost scholars and a high-ranking member of the Chinese Communisty Party who normally speaks to international conferences rather than high school kids, so we were incredibly lucky to have the chance to speak with him.  Dr. Shen is famous for being the driving force behind the Shanghai Dialogue, which established a stable nuclear relationship between China, India, Pakistan and the United States, and also for his role in the Six-Party Talks with North Korea over their nuclear program (he told our group quite frankly that he considers himself to have failed in that endeavor).  Dr. Shen is one of China's foremost experts on the United States and U.S.-China relations, in fact he had to forego dinner with our group afterwards in order to be interviewed by CCTV (Chinese Communist Television) about the implications of Hillary Clinton's recent primary victories in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island.  Not surprisingly, the students listened with rapt attention.

Dr. Shen gave us a sobering view of China-U.S. relations, one that had a very optimistic potential outcome but which failed to rule out the possibility of warfare and was ultimately somewhat bellicose.  His frank explanations of the military realities and the geopolitics behind the scenes kept the students fascinated, and our students had some great questions for him as well.  Dr. Shen was so impressed with our group that he invited Peddie into a relationship with Fudan University and the Center for American Studies, asking that we keep in contact and perhaps participate in a research project, and insisting that we allow him to host us at Fudan the next time we bring Peddie students to Shanghai.  Obviously, our hardy band of scholar-adventurers is doing a great job of representing Peddie in China.