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What are the roles China plays and what approaches does China take to the global order? This paper goes beyond the singular and static view on the roles of states as either status quo or revisionist and introduces more subtle roles of states with multi-approaches of Status Quo, Parallel Supplement, Nested Enhancement, Regime Shifting, Competitive Regime Creation and Ideological Confrontation. After coding 1889 events from the 'Belt and Road Portal' and then taking eight most frequent case clusters of the BRI as representative cases, the congruence analysis leads to the main argument that China plays multiple roles of rule taker, rule reformer, rule breaker and rule innovator. The contribution is both theoretical and practical. It improves the typology of states' approaches to the global order and helps to interpret the roles of emerging powers for the global order. By designing the BRI Index and coding the case cluster, this paper provides a new way to identify the representative case of the BRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, Central Asia has been at an important geographical cusp wherein different civilizations such as the Indian, Chinese, and Ottoman have competed for their strategic outreach in the region. Its importance has been emphasized by Mackinder in his heartland theory. The vast discoveries of the natural resources in the region, along with the U.S. 'War on Terror' and China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that passes through the CARs (Central Asian Republics), have reignited the 'New Great Game.' Amongst the 5 CARs, the position of Tajikistan is of extreme relevance for China as it paves the way to Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and further in Eastern Europe and West Asia. China's strategic embrace of Tajikistan cannot be missed by the strategic experts, given its access to Xinjiang from the Taliban-dominated Afghanistan, which has led it to establish an anti-terrorism alliance with Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. To increase its influence on Tajikistan, China has utilized a variety of means, including soft power, investments, military help, and training programmes. In this light, the paper will attempt to examine how China rapidly brought Tajikistan under its clout and the economic, social, and strategic consequences for Tajikistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the geopolitical factors that have been the catalyst for the Rohingya crisis, with special attention on the roles of China and India. It then situates those views through 20 in-depth interviews of informants from Bangladesh who are experts in South and Southeast Asian politics. Bangladesh has borne the brunt of accommodating the fleeing Rohingyas and is currently bearing the ensuing socio-economic costs. The research findings suggest that as a result of Chinese and Indian strategic interest in Myanmar and competition for regional dominance, the Rohingya have become the meat in the sandwich, and the 'Rohingya crisis' has been propelled into a status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After being a neutral actor for decades in the complex South China Sea (SCS) territorial disputes, Indonesia has seen itself compelled by China's assertiveness to become firmer about protecting its territorial sovereignty around the Natuna Islands (NI). Jakarta is alarmed by China's claims that it has undeniable historical fishing rights in the NI territorial waters because they undermine Indonesia's territorial sovereignty. Our analysis loosely adopts the securitization conceptual framework proposed by the Copenhagen School to reveal that Jakarta swiftly securitized the NI issue between 2014 and 2016. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, this paper unpacks how the Indonesian printed mainstream media discussed the NI in recent years. By the end of 2016, the Indonesian media portrayed China's claims that it has historical fishing rights in the NI territorial waters as the most urgent national security threat to Indonesia, i.e. the NI issue was securitized. This analysis shows that the Indonesian people accepted Jakarta's security discourse, i.e. Jakarta had successfully securitized China's claims over the NI territorial waters. This paper makes a new contribution to the securitization literature by simultaneously analysing the Indonesian news and social media outlets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Singapore's rude awakening to independence has led to the creation of one of the most important and strategic entrepôts in the Asia-Pacific. The country's limited territorial lands and natural resources, combined with huge per capita income, high population density and sensitive racial mix, make Singapore the quintessential pragmatic trading state of the twenty-first century. This paper examines how Singapore has embedded itself at the centre of regional and global trade systems by exploiting various forms of free trade activities including multilateral, regional and bilateral FTAs that underpin its security and survival. It argues that in order to maintain the city-state's geo-economic and geo-political viability, the Singaporean government has progressively linked its security interests with its multilevel free trade activities. Given the ‘vulnerability fetish’ and siege mentality that confront Singaporean leaders and policymakers, the pursuit of economic development via free trade has become the heart of its national security policy and strategy. The paper concludes by arguing that the enhancement and preservation of Singapore's survival as a sovereign nation-state demands a strategic utilization of FTAs with different trade partners, especially with regional and trans-regional powers such as the United States and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on Hong Kong lawyers has so far focused on their internal differences and the rise of cause lawyering. Not much has been done on their role in promoting political liberalism. This paper fills a gap by reviewing the history of lawyers’ political activism before and after Hong Kong’s sovereignty shifted from a liberal-colonial to an authoritarian regime in 1997. It argues, first, that Hong Kong’s post-colonial constitutionalized politics and prolonged democratic deficit have given the legal complex—which includes lawyers and also increasingly legal academics—a key role in its pro-democracy movement, and second, critical political junctures have driven activist lawyers to use various means, from electoral politics to civil disobedience, to defend the rule of law and Hong Kong’s tortuous democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2016 seemed to mark a critical juncture in China’s non-profit sector as the government passed several laws and regulations, including the Charity Law. This study examines this development as part of the historical evolution of legal regimes governing NGOs, and considers the contexts of these recent legal changes. By doing so, this paper aims to infer the implications for the governance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in China. Compared to previous laws and regulations, those introduced by Xi Jinping’s administration suggest the party-state’s heightened willingness to acknowledge the numerical growth and diversification of NGOs and their contributions to Chinese society. However, the new laws and regulations also indicate the government’s willingness to adopt a more explicit divide-and-rule approach to NGOs. On the one hand, the government aims to actively incorporate those NGOs that it considers useful and innocuous into an increasingly institutionalized system of social governance and rule of law. On the other, the government is likely to apply the policy of outright rejection and repression to those it identifies as threatening the party-state’s authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how piloting programmes in China can promote local policy innovations. By using one of the piloting emission trading schemes (ETS) in Guangdong province as a case study, it is argued that the main features of the piloting experiments, particularly in the climate change domain, are largely different from previous local marketization experiments that dominate the reform period of China. Whereas previous experiments are often characterized as bottom-up or indigenous initiatives with strong patronage relations to the pro-reform politicians at central level, the current piloting programmes are often crafted in a top-down fashion that is often misaligned with local market or corporate interests. Hence, local policy innovations are designed, developed and brokered by the local state officers, in order to bridge this central–local interest gap. As a result, successful implementation of these policy innovations largely depends on local political traditions, bureaucratic culture and perceptions of distinctive development needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid economic growth, China has become its neighbours’ largest trade partner in the twenty-first century. At the same time, the growth of China’s military and its assertiveness are raising concerns among its neighbours that China’s rise will pose a threat to them. In this context, will China’s neighbours—Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Korea—view China positively or negatively? By using statistical analysis, this paper aims to explore whether individuals are more affected by their economic position or national security concerns when they view China. The findings in this article suggest that individuals’ security concerns have stronger associations with their attitudes toward China than economic conditions. Specifically, individuals’ views on China’s military growth and territorial disputes had negative effects on their attitudes toward China. On the other hand, economic interests had weaker associations with individuals’ views of China than security concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusiveness in economic development has lately emerged as a critical factor for development. This paper adopts an analytical concept of inclusive growth to evaluate East Asia’s economic success. It contests the Western conceptualization of the critical role of public participation in development, and argues that it has played a limited role in terms of inclusive growth in East Asia. Several factors have influenced the outcome of research in this area including the choice of methodology adopted, the challenge of defining and measuring inclusive growth, and the unclear mode and impact of public participation in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

South China Sea disputes pose huge energy insecurity to China and Southeast Asian nations, threatening their vital Sea Lines of Communication. This study explores the ongoing conflicts in the South China Sea through Womack's Asymmetry theory of international relations. It contributes to the theory by suggesting ways to improve regional cooperation by adapting to new and renewable energy sources, such as offshore wind. The disparity of capacity among littorals in the South China Sea has created systemic misperception. How China can make amends with these countries by aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and bridging the asymmetry in the region becomes the key research question. This study analyses the existing international environmental agreements applicable in the South China Sea based on the issuing agency, China as a signatory, legality, and the nature of the agreement. It has been observed that the existing international agreements are ineffective in creating geopolitical symmetry. Our proposal of using offshore wind energy as a cooperative sustainable development tool to bridge the asymmetry can encourage cooperation for knowledge, technology, and practice sharing ensuring peace and cooperation in South China Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Asia's cooperation and China's participation in it between 1995 and 2020, where Asia is conceptualized as a bimodal network of regional organizations and member countries. The analysis puts forward empirical evidence of the success of China's cooperative multilateral strategy in the region and explains how the expanded presence in the existing regional multilateral framework and establishing new ones safeguards the unique network position of the most well-connected actor in a region as mosaic as Asia is. China's proactive contribution to the existing frameworks legitimized and intensified all links (ties) in the region and creating new regional platforms has increased connectivity between other actors in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the US-led UNC (United Nations Command) have enough clout to misapply its original function, thereby making those assets available to hegemonic rivalry? Is this clout likely to be seen as equally important by all members? The UNC was established as an integrated warfighting organization during the Korean War and continues to this day as the peace driver on the Korean Peninsula. In the meantime, the UNC helps the US hegemony sustain the region, functioning as the two-for-one entity for both peace and hegemony. Seen in this light, the UNC serves as a rare case in international politics. The UNC allows the US to be armed with four types of leverage-political, military, economic and institutional-which contribute to hegemony maintenance. The institutionally given legal nature of the UNC with a large international audience makes the four types of leverage more viable. The effectiveness of the UNC could possibly encourage the US to use it to further US interest in its hegemonic competition with China. If the US were to maximize its function as a hegemony keeper, however, the UNC is likely to lose its convergent ground gradually because it is seen as a far-fetched intention by the UNC members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the case study of Trinidad and Tobago, this article analyzes the process of reciprocal international socialization that allows Beijing to construct a cognitive and normative space conducive to a new regional order in the Caribbean which should be politically friendly, economically profitable, and socially open to its government, companies, and citizens. We argue that there has been a shift in the identity of Trinidad's state-society complex due to the influence of China's very visible political, economic, and social conditionalities. Their impact on political elites (which is reflected in government discourse and actions) and on the society at large (as shown by interviews with 30 Trinidadian nationals) is analyzed in order to show that Type I, 'role playing' socialization has been reached. However, frustration within Trinidad's society with the domestic effects of China's economic and social conditionalities clearly limits the potential for the evolution toward the more advanced Type II socialization exemplified, in the same region, by the Soviet-Cuban relationship. This suggests that, at least in the near future, key features of the Chinese approach incompatible with its self-proclaimed win-win nature will prevent Beijing from upgrading its status to that of a decisive socializer in the Caribbean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores and compares the positions of two major powers in East Asia—China and Japan—towards the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) norm. R2P calls for collective international responsibility in the event that states are unwilling or unable to protect their people. Evaluating the mainstream argument in the literature that China and Japan have recently been welcoming the R2P norm, we ask the following questions: To what extent have China and Japan aligned themselves with R2P? How do international and national factors play out to influence their R2P stance? To summarize our findings up front: unlike what much of the current literature says, China and Japan's acceptance and practice of the R2P norm are largely pro forma. We argue that they both appear active in participating in the debates but only in order to remain inactive. In other words, they are active participants in the debates and discussions on R2P, but their aim is not to further its usage but to contain its effects. Their current stance on R2P is characterized by what we will call ‘Active in Not Being Active’ (AINBA). The article discusses the key sources and rationale for their AINBA policy with regard to R2P. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classic theoretical research on the diffusion of policy innovation is usually based on decentralized democratic regimes. However, in authoritarian centralized countries such as China, questions such as, ‘What are the driving forces and the structural dynamics behind local government policy innovation and inter-regional diffusion?’ and ‘How do the governmental structural factors lead to the different patterns of diffusion of policy innovation across local governments?’ are interesting research topics. The theoretical framework proposed in this study highlights the roles of the contingent vertical and horizontal governmental relations in innovation diffusion. I extract two key properties: vertical mandatory intervention from the central government and horizontal political competition among peer governments. This research uses four models to develop a new typology of the inter-regional diffusion of policy innovation in China: (1) the enlightenment model, (2) the championship model, (3) the designation model, and (4) the recognition model. A comparative case study is conducted in this research, with four policy cases showing that China has developed diversified mechanisms to encourage local governments to perform policy innovation and inter-regional diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the question: What are the factors that increase the probability of Chinese interference in intrastate wars? Chinese behaviour concerning intrastate wars was examined using multivariate logistic regressions. The analyses included the general behaviour of China regarding interference in intrastate wars, Chinese support of violent non-governmental organizations and of state governments. Both were also studied separately for the Cold War and the post-Cold War eras. Among the covariates that were examined, several emerged as possible explanations for China's behaviour: geographic contiguity, adversary regime type, and China's relative military capabilities. Furthermore, differences were found between Chinese support of violent non-governmental organizations and of governments in intrastate wars. Different results were also obtained for Cold War and post-Cold War eras. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]