| Summary/Abstract |
This contribution argues that, without an ethical operational code, scholars’, policymakers’, businesspersons’, and citizens’ policy positions simply become expedient reactions to
perceived problems, opportunities, and interests. Without
ethical footing, policies as a whole will lack coherence, staying power, and persuasive force. Key elements of an ethical
operational code include: philosophical grounding and core
values, concepts of social and historical development, and
rules of thumb derived from an individual’s experience. Providing several examples of China-related policy issues which
would benefit from the ethical operational code approach,
this essay then discusses the analytic elements of an operational code. It concludes by arguing that, in the context of
US-China relations, individuals should develop ethical constructs characterized by patience, more carrots than sticks,
and more open doors than high walls. In what is emerging as
an increasingly ideologically polarized domestic and foreign
policy circumstance in the United States and in U.S.-China
relations, the starting point for an individual needs to be
self-reflection concerning what they believe and why
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