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The study of Chinese foreign policy has long shown that domestic politics and domestic constraints are sources of foreign policy, albeit generally considered less potent than ideology and interests. Domestic political constraints should also be explored as factors in Chinese regional policies toward East Asia, including regional economic institutions. This paper examines three domestic institutional constraints on regional foreign policy in the area of trade and economics: a fragmented decision-making structure that has difficulty with coordination, a relatively heavy reliance on top level decision-makers at a time when issues of Asian economic policy have relatively low priority for these same decision-makers, and the relatively extreme lack of autonomy for negotiators vis-a-vis top decision-makers in Beijing. These constraints are by any means unique to China. However, at a time when many observers and participants are expecting—indeed, often hoping for—Chinese leadership in the region, the paper posits that these constraints hinder the PRC's ability to fill this role. The key empirical focus is regional trade agreements and regional economic organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has rapidly re-emerged as a major regional power in East Asia. Although this represents a return to a long-established historical pattern, the ability of China's political elites to reassure nervous neighbours about the implications of its rise will be a major test of its evolving and increasingly sophisticated foreign policies. In this paper we focus primarily on China's regional engagement strategies, detailing the way such initiatives are understood in China, and the way they are received elsewhere. We focus primarily on the political and economic impacts of China's policies, and briefly consider their reception in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia. We highlight the different dynamics and issues that China's policymakers must consider in each area, and suggest that despite some difficulties and tensions, on balance, China's policies are proving surprisingly effective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores how China's strategic motivations and calculations have both motivated and constrained its participation in East Asian regional cooperation. It argues that China's participation in regional economic and security cooperation is motivated first of all by the calculation of China's domestic interests to create a peaceful peripheral environment for its economic growth and political stability, particularly its frontier security and prosperity. The realist interests to enhance China's position in power competition with other major players in the region, particularly Japan and US, also play an important part in China's strategic calculation. These interest calculations, however, also set limits on China's participation in regional cooperation. These interest calculations have also shaped China's preference for an informal approach, emphasizing voluntarism and consensus building rather than legally binding resolutions, toward regional cooperation. This soft approach is a major barrier for many regional institutions to move beyond the stage of talking shops to effectively resolve conflicts in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composition of Greater China among the PRC, Hong Kong and Taiwan entails an emerging form of micro governance where an ecological evolution of sub-group interaction and crossover of economic and social activities has been generating a dynamic of change within the East Asian region. The constitution of Greater China by social, economic, political, business and even daily commuting creates some soul searching questions about the possible outcomes of their intense interaction. To what extent has integration been made within Greater China through these interactions? Is China the economic linchpin or does China need to cooperate in one way or another to facilitate the modes of economic development? What are the attitudes and strategies used by Hong Kong or Taiwan when confronted with such an economic cum social entity? More importantly, where, and, under what conditions, will the interactions among the PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong lead to? In this paper, I am going to use a conceptual model which includes four interactions: integration, interdependence, identity and independence (Four Is) to capture the catalyst of change that collectively entails these intermingled economic, social and cultural elements. People who live in the vast context of this geographical region experience the change. Through daily interaction, they help write the context of change through business activities, investment, migration, trade, culture, academic exchange, political and social development along the Four Is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vietnam's perceptions of China are complex and have been shaped bycultural affinity, the memory of wars, and geopolitical considerationsthroughout history. The construction of their foreign discourse has led tothe empirical puzzle: what makes China and Vietnam, two of the emergingpowers in East Asia, stick together in the post-Cold War era? How to explaintheir diplomatic spats in maritime disputes? This article traces the development of the '16 Word Guideline,' adopted by both communist parties in 1999 and highlighted the binding effect of assurance rhetoric. This discursive context presents great opportunities for them for regional integration. A framework of 'coercive rhetoric' captures China's and Vietnam's official statements to signal benign intentions toward their neighbors, and to constrain foreign behavior from both sides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the obstacles to greater cooperation in Northeast Asia and why have the nations of the region not been entirely successful in moving beyond history, toward greater cooperation? Conducting a brief survey of Northeast Asian IR and power alignment patterns from the Imperial/Dynastic era to the present, this essay utilizes the constructivist approach to assess regional alignment patterns in Northeast Asian history corresponding to six historical time periods, ranging from Ming China to the present. It does so by employing Wendt's system-level cultures of anarchy (Hobbesian, Lockean and Kantian cultures) at the dyadic/second level of analysis and the regional level of analysis (level 2.5), rating the various eras as to levels of cooperation vs enmity, with an eye to identifying the reasons for today's tension points. It concludes that despite such tension points and unresolved historical issues, anarchy in Northeast Asia today is not Hobbesian (enmity), but rather Lockean (rivalry). Consequently and first, war, nuclear proliferation and security spirals may be avoidable with proper sensitivity to the issues that continue to pose as obstacles to regional cooperation, including historical grievances, uncertainties over China's rise and the US role in the region, the North Korean nuclear issue and others. Second, attention to improving the dyadic cultures (China–Japan, South Korea–North Korea, etc.) that together comprise the region's relational culture (either Hobbesian, Lockean or Kantian) make greater regional cooperation possible and even more likely. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the recent growth in multilateral security processes, the efforts to forge a ‘security architecture’, and focuses particularly on the role that China's rise has played in this process. It sketches out growth in Asian security cooperation and the efforts to forge a new security architecture. It then considers the question of China as a cause of this increase in security cooperation as well as China's own motives in actively engaging with this process. The final section then reflects on the contribution that security cooperation currently makes to the regional order. The article argues that China's rise has been an important prompt to the efforts to devise new security arrangements, but has not been the only source of this trend. It concludes that while multilateral security cooperation will be important in the emerging regional order, alone it will not provide a robust foundation for regional stability and security. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article seeks to explore how stable regional order under the possible community formation can be created in East Asia in moves towards China's ascendancy. For this objective, it takes advantage of a framework assuming that the development of an East Asian community would be possible under conditions that the states in the region develop common identity and norms, as well as multilateral institutions that guarantee the long-term interest. Moreover, the society needs to be involved in identity formation and institution-building. This article argues that China has been gradually embedded into formal multilateral institutions and less formal policy networks formed by state and non-state actors, which have been conducive to the creation of a regional community. However, both collective norms at the governmental level and shared cultural consciousness at the public level have not developed enough to have significant influences on directing China firmly to the formation of a regional community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tremendous changes have taken place in East Asia in the post-Cold War era, which have a great impact on Chinese foreign policy and its relations with major powers in East Asia. This new power configuration is related to as 'two ups' and 'two downs', which have become apparent since the early 1990s. The 'two ups' concern the rise of the United States and China. The United States' rise to sole superpower status has given Washington a dominant role in all four dimensions of world affairs: political, strategic, economic, and technological/cultural. Meanwhile, China has achieved a spectacular economic performance for the past two decades, sustaining high growth rates, and escaping, so far, the Asian economic crisis of 1997–98. This expansion has greatly increased China's influence in regional and global affairs. The 'two downs' refer to the downturns of Russia and Japan. This article provides a detailed analysis of China's international environment in the context of the changing dynamics of major-power relations in East Asia. Special attention is paid to the crucial Beijing–Tokyo–Washington triangle. The examination focuses upon political, economic, and strategic dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]