To be a friend of China

At a time when many focus on how to combat China's rise as a world power, there are others who wonder what it might mean for us to enjoy a cooperative relationship with the newly ascendant nation. Among them is Lindsay Waters, HUP's Executive Editor for the Humanities, who for ten years has been traveling to China to forge links with those Chinese scholars who truly have their fingers on the pulse of the transformations shaking their country. The Boston Globe's "Brainiac" blog interviewed Waters on his efforts, and why being a "friend of China" does not mean giving the Chinese government a pass on the human rights issues that shock many here in the West.