The 'Spy' Balloon and US-China Relations as Viewed by Fudan Scholar Shen Yi

"From now on and for the foreseeable future... it will be very difficult for US-China relations to return to a positive and healthy development path. The US should be held mainly responsible for this"

Dear Everyone,

Expert commentary on the still unfolding “spy” balloon incident between Beijing and Washington and its potential repercussions on US-China relations has so far been scarce in mainland China. This is unsurprising on account of the high profile and particularly sensitive nature of this issue. Opinions that have been published tend naturally to be very much in line with Beijing’s official narrative.

This holds true for Shen Yi (沈逸), one of the rare Chinese scholars to have already published a commentary on this affair. As already introduced in a previous post, Shen is a professor at Fudan University's School of International Relations and Public Affairs. He is also a prolific political commentator with a following of over two million on Weibo. If one were to place his views on a political spectrum, I think it would be fair to say that he is among the more hawkish scholars in China. Shen has previously written about his experience of being interrogated by the FBI and having…