Fostering Stability or Creating a Monster? The Rise of China and U.S. Policy toward East Asia

Christensen, Thomas J.

doi:10.1162/isec.2006.31.1.81

Cited by 183 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…So far, much academic and policy-oriented debate has centred on whether the swift ascent of China from the periphery to the centre of global politics will be peaceful (Chen and Pan 2011;Christensen 2006;Friedberg 2005Friedberg , 2011Mearsheimer 2001Mearsheimer , 2010Yan 2013Yan , 2014. Three primary IR schools of thought offer contrasting answers.…”

Section: China's Rise: Prevalent Theoretical Paradigms Vs Social Idementioning

confidence: 99%

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Status-Seeking: China’s Foray into Global Economic Governance

Yang¹

2016

Chin. Polit. Sci. Rev.

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Despite the long-standing debate on the rise of China, there has been relatively little attention to the country's status concerns. This article therefore examines how China sought an enhanced international status by looking into the illustrative case of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). To this end, it employs the social identity theory (SIT) framework applied to international relations (IR), in conjunction with additional insights into institutional innovation. In the IR context, SIT posits that an aspiring state resorts predominantly to one of the three status-seeking strategies-social mobility, social competition and social creativity, i.e., emulating or competing with established powers, or attempting to achieve prestige on a new dimension. As to institutional innovation, it is introduced as a construct to understand the crystallisation of social creativity in the AIIB. By virtue of analysing primary sources and secondary literature, the research at hand finds that in the case of the AIIB China adopted largely, albeit not exclusively, the social creativity strategy to mitigate the doubt of the West and boost the legitimacy of the bank. Specifically, Beijing followed the relevant rules of the game in the institutionbuilding process and presented as a legitimate addition the quintessential statusseeking initiative-partly born out of exasperations with the existing architecture. The case study on such a noteworthy institution-building effort can shed light on the underlying rationales and wider implications of similar China-backed structures and, relatedly, the strategic thinking of the Chinese leadership to seek a greater international status.

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Section: China's Rise: Prevalent Theoretical Paradigms Vs Social Idementioning

confidence: 99%

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Status-Seeking: China’s Foray into Global Economic Governance

Yang¹

2016

Chin. Polit. Sci. Rev.

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“…Specifically, the expansive use of military power by rising China and its assertive territorial claims, combined with North Korea's highly provocative foreign and security policies have paved the way for the rise of conservative constituencies in Japan (Hughes, 2009). The US also played a key role in the consolidation of such conservative preference among Japanese people by exaggerating hostile intentions from the two rivals (Christensen, 2006). A poll, which was conducted by the Asahi Shimbun in 2010, for example, reports that 29% of respondents pointed out that the biggest military threat to Japan is from North Korea while 55% of respondents said that the biggest military threat to Japan is from China.…”

Section: Rise Of Conservative Japanese Constituenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on the initiative, the US and Japan revised a defense guideline in which Japan's new military roles constitutes a key part of a revitalized alliance between two states (Christensen, 1999). The guideline in which US has consistently supported for Japan's pro-active role in East Asia specifically targeted rising China (Christensen, 2006). Keenly aware of the security implications of rising China in East Asia, the US has made determined efforts to increase Japanese assertiveness in its foreign policy.…”

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confidence: 99%

Explaining Japan’s Shift to Foreign Policy Activism: Security Challenges and Perverse Political Accountability

You¹

2015

IRD

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The paper examines the root causes of Japan's rapid shift to foreign policy activism. To explain the causes, Idevelop the so-called "perverse political accountability" approach. Specifically, the approach claims that a growing security challenge from China and North Korea, and US policy favoring Japan's foreign policy activism structure.Japan's domestic political condition that the majority of Japanese people become more conservative and nationalistic. Such shift in the Japanese people's preference has been both creating and reinforcing a perverse accountability by which the leaders or parties willing to adopt hard-line foreign policies are better off electorally while the leaders or parties remaining soft-line on foreign affairs are worse off. The perverse accountability not only leads to a severe partisan imbalance between the conservative parties and the leftist parties, but also gives the most conservative party, e.g., the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a greater chance of coming to office and of pursuing assertive foreign policy they favor. Thus, the perverse accountability is at the center of current Japan's turn to foreign policy activism. This finding contributes to an enhanced understanding for Japan's shift to assertive foreign policy.Keywords: Japan, foreign policy activism, China, North Korea, the US, perverse political accountability PuzzleThe world has wondered why Japan is moving so rapidly into foreign policy activism. Japan, whose foreign policy was quite peaceful and generous in development aid, disaster relief and peacekeeping, has grown increasingly hawkish in recent decades. Japan's foreign policy leaders, regardless of their partisan differences, have not hesitated to show their growing commitments to a series of assertive foreign policies, such as proactively responding to growing threats from China in the East and South China Sea, preventing North Korea's missile threats, exercising the right of collective self-defense, making it easier for the Diet to propose revisions to the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, increasing a more proactive role for the Self-Defense Force (SDF) overseas, and downplaying its World-War II (WWII) era crimes.

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“…37 See David M. Lampton [117] 38 China, the U.S., and the Power-Transition Theory: A Critique (London and New York: Routledge, 2008). 39 Categories of such theories are described variously in Aaron L. Friedberg [118], and Thomas J. Christensen [119] 40 For example, see Brantly Womack [120] victories of 1965 or 1969, or the Thaksin landslides of 2001 or 2005. Populist dictators have often used electoral legitimation to end liberalism.…”

Section: Political Equalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Chinese Political Studies: Overview of the State of the Field

White

2009

J OF CHIN POLIT SCI

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The range of questions of interest to scholars of Chinese politics has changed slowly over recent decades, but the depth of empirical probes to answer them has quickly improved. One reason is the rise of China-born and ChineseAmerican researchers. Another is greater access to local information in China after the start of reforms there. Future developments in this field are likely to enrich current American political science, which will require fresh methods for adequate study of the planet's most populous polity. Keywords China . Chinese Political Studies . State of Field . 2000s . Reforms Marxist ideology and official planning weakened the state? Do these changes bode not just a stronger China eventually (after the 2009 recession), but also a stronger Beijing? Is the Party ending, and what might follow it? How is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) maintaining itself? Under what conditions, if any, might China's elite adopt a liberal regime type?

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Fostering Stability or Creating a Monster? The Rise of China and U.S. Policy toward East Asia

Cited by 183 publications

References 32 publications

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Status-Seeking: China’s Foray into Global Economic Governance

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Status-Seeking: China’s Foray into Global Economic Governance

Explaining Japan’s Shift to Foreign Policy Activism: Security Challenges and Perverse Political Accountability

Chinese Political Studies: Overview of the State of the Field

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