On the evening of November 5, 2020, the 30th "Duyan" Reading Workshop of the Institute for Central Asian Studies of Lanzhou University was held.28 teachers and students from the School of Politics and International Relations and the School of Marxism of Lanzhou University participated this activity. The theme of the reading is "Status Seeking and Recognition", and the reading materials were “Chinese and Russian responses to U.S. primacy” (Deborah Welchlarson and Alexei Shevchenko, International Security, Vol.34, No.4, 2010, pp.63-95.）and “Fears of Falling Short versus Anxieties of Decline：Explaining Russia and China’s Approach to Status-Seeking”（Andrej Krickovic and Chang Zhang, The Chinese Journal of International Politics, Vol.13, No.2, 2020, pp.219–251.）

At the beginning, Miss Zhang Shaowen gave a brief introduction on these two papers. The first one focuses on the issue of "How the United States make other countries, especially China and Russia, to participate in global governance and maintain international order". The paper concludes that if the leading country (the United States) recognizes the contributions made by China and Russia to the international community, China and Russia will take cooperative actions, otherwise, China and Russia will take competitive or hostile actions.The second paper focuses on the issue of "Why the declining countries (Russia) tend to take offensive and confrontational actions while the rising countries (China) tend to adopt cautious and restrained behaviors in seeking status".Finally, the conclusion is drawn that both declining and rising countries may contribute to international peace and stability, and the key lies in the attitude of the leading countries towards them.

Then, students shared their views on the above literature one by one. It is generally believed that these two articles are novel in viewpoint, rigorous in argument, consistent in logic, concise in theoretical framework, detailed in literature review, appropriate in case selection, rich in references. The profound theoretical basis of several authors, and skillful writing skills are of great benefit to our study and research. However, students also raised some questions on those papers.

At the end of the reading club, Professor Zeng Xianghong first responded to some questions raised by students about this works. Then he encouraged the students to study hard and think deeper, lay a solid foundation, and explore the academic frontier. In particular, he said students should closely combine the rising reality of China with the theory of international relations to do irreplaceable research.