Seventeen years ago when the 9/11 tragedy occurred, some hardliners in the leadership of the PRC regarded this event as a strategic opportunity for China: a weakened USA trapped in a confrontation with the forces of radical Islam would be in the national interest for Communist China’s survival. However, not long after, China faces the same problem: the danger coming from Islamic extremism and international terrorism. The growth of Islam in China after the 1980s has impacted the domestic and foreign policies of the PRC government. Amidst an intensified trade war and competition between the two largest economic powers in the world, this talk will explore this complicated triangular relationship at this critical present moment.
Professor Jianping Wang is an emeritus professor of Philosophy and Religion at Shanghai Normal University and is a visiting research scholar at Harvard University.
