William C. Kirby Quotes

United States, Professor
1950

William C. Kirby (Chinese: 柯伟林; pinyin: Kē Wěilín; born 1950) is T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard University. He is the former Director of Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Chairman of the Harvard China Fund, and the former Dean of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. After a four-year tenure he announced on January 27, 2006 that he would resign as Dean.

Also known as Director

The most important thing that certainly the United States and other Asian and Pacific actors have done is to urge that whatever happens, however the dispute is resolved, that it be resolved peacefully.

William C. Kirby
- Important
- Done
- Actors
There is no question that Taiwan is a state in any political science definition of a state.

William C. Kirby
- Political
- Science
- States

Another goal is to look to the resources we have and to see how we could do better to plan, in a sense, for the faculty and infrastructure that we will need to study Asia well into the 21st century.

William C. Kirby
- Study
- Goal
- Century
East Asia has prospered since the end of the Vietnam War, and Northeast Asia has prospered since the end of the Korean War in a way that seems unimaginable when you think of the history of the first half of the century.

William C. Kirby
- Thinking
- War
- Korean
Taiwan is a major economy.

William C. Kirby
- Economy
- Majors
- Taiwan
So, I think China desperately needs to legitimize some form of opposition.

William C. Kirby
- Thinking
- Needs
- Form
The greater concerns in China and Taiwan are on the political side, not on the economic side.

William C. Kirby
The Chinese government since 1979 has been very successful in economic development, and successful enough, simply by surviving, in the realm of political development.

William C. Kirby

Now, I believe that war is never inevitable until it starts, but there has been a great proclivity in human history, and including in recent history, for war.

William C. Kirby
- Believe
- War
- Humans
I don't believe that economic and cultural interaction automatically brings greater peace and understanding, although it may help in that regard.

William C. Kirby
Harvard is first and foremost a university and not a consulting operation, and our job here is to teach and to research and to create knowledge on Asia in conjunction and in cooperation with scholars as well as with political, intellectual, and cultural leaders in Asia.

William C. Kirby