Issues & Studies最新文献

{"title":"Indonesian Foreign Policy under the Jokowi Administration: Variations on Traditional Ideas","authors":"Baiq Wardhani, Vinsensio Dugis","doi":"10.1142/s1013251123500054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s1013251123500054","url":null,"abstract":"Since independence in 1945, Indonesia has managed to carry out its foreign policy according to a unique doctrine described as “independent and active” (bebas dan aktif). To be independent means that Indonesia does not side with world powers, while being active means vigorously carrying out peaceful policies and actively participating in the peaceful settlement of international issues. The doctrine is not a neutral policy but does not align and bind the country with the superpowers or any military pact. Instead, being independent and active primarily serves the national interest while allowing the Indonesian government to collaborate with other nations. However, the doctrine’s implementation has varied according to the different interpretations of successive presidents. This paper explains Indonesia’s independent and active foreign policy during President Joko Widodo’s presidency. It contends that while the doctrine has continued to underlie Indonesia’s foreign policy, the formulation of President Joko Widodo’s foreign policy is unique in its practical approach, prioritizing the national interest and the domestic advantages of foreign relations. In the president’s worldview, foreign policy has been instrumental in promoting the nation’s development.","PeriodicalId":274099,"journal":{"name":"Issues & Studies","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127185104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Do All Roads Lead to Rome? A Review of the Literature on Succession Politics in China","authors":"X. Zang","doi":"10.1142/s1013251123400064","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s1013251123400064","url":null,"abstract":"Political elites have a tremendous influence on past, present and future socioeconomic and political developments in both western and non-western countries. Unsurprisingly, the analysis of China’s elites has been crucial in the study of politics there. A large body of literature has examined the members of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, a stronghold of the nation’s political elites. Given the growing interest and research on elite politics in the PRC in recent years, this paper reviews studies of the pathways to political power and the personal qualifications of the members of the Central Committee that are central to studies of elite Chinese politics. This review paper is organized both chronologically and thematically. It shows a shift away from the study of demographics of Central Committee members toward theorizing of how recruitment into the Central Committee works. Some scholars have theorized succession politics in China as the rise of technocracy, while others have used institutionalization and factional politics to explain how China’s leaders are selected. This paper summarizes and identifies several theoretical and methodological issues in existing studies as an effort to advance research on succession politics and political evolution in China.","PeriodicalId":274099,"journal":{"name":"Issues & Studies","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121562179","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Xi Jinping’s Consolidation of Power at the 20th Party Congress: Implications for Chinese Foreign Policy","authors":"Suisheng Zhao","doi":"10.1142/s1013251123400052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s1013251123400052","url":null,"abstract":"The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in October 2022 secured Xi Jinping’s third term as General Secretary and secured a team of supporters amid socioeconomic woes and increasingly hostile global circumstances. While leadership matters in all political systems, it matters much more in totalitarian and authoritarian ones. Political leaders in democracies are constrained by electoral cycles, term limits, and approval ratings, but the leaders of the PRC’s single-party system that emphasizes discipline, hierarchy, and democratic centralism operate relatively unchecked by bureaucracy, opposition forces, or public opinion. Its leaders possess the ultimate decision-making authority in national security and strategic policies (Zhao, 2022, p. 5). The consolidation of Xi’s power has far-reaching implications for China’s foreign policy. As a feared, sycophantically revered, and ruthless emperor confident in his country’s military power and economic clout, Xi feels equipped to accomplish his mission of making China great again. He has also inherited a pervasive insecurity of pushback from Western powers that threatens his authoritarian rule. He has therefore upheld the security of the regime beyond Deng Xiaoping and his decades of prioritizing growth. Proactively stifling any opposition to his rule and cracking down on any hint of a “color revolution” at home in connection with foreign forces, Xi has strengthened the military and reorganized the economy in preparation for a possible showdown with the United States. He has required Chinese diplomats to act as “wolf warriors” in diplomatic battles and fight criticisms of the regime even at the cost of escalating international tensions. While his team of supporters has maximized his power to implement his policies, this has also prevented his colleagues from counseling against any mistakes they may anticipate or discover. Intentionally or not, he has minimized opportunities to correct his mistakes and increased the stakes and the risks they present, raising the potential for his country to become embroiled in a foreign adventure of no return.","PeriodicalId":274099,"journal":{"name":"Issues & Studies","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133849713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"No Turning Back? Assessing China’s Intent to Use Force to Resolve the Taiwan Issue After 2018","authors":"Hsin-Hsien Wang, Wei-Feng Tzeng","doi":"10.1142/s1013251123400076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s1013251123400076","url":null,"abstract":"This paper collects and analyzes the speeches of top Chinese leaders on Taiwan, the relevant remarks of Taiwan-related ministries and commissions, and important documents concerning Taiwan. It takes the visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan as an example to observe China’s current policy toward Taiwan and its intent to employ force. This paper argues that although the outside world has repeatedly emphasized that “Taiwan is the most dangerous place on earth” and that China will invade Taiwan by force, peaceful unification is still the main axis of its strategy toward Taiwan. Military force is an avenue for China to force unification and prevent international interference in the Taiwan issue. The results of our analysis of Taiwan-related remarks by top Chinese leaders and relevant ministries and commissions are also highly consistent with the political report of the 20th Party Congress, and there are two noteworthy points. First, China has linked “opposing independence” with “opposing interference by external forces” and the principle of “never renouncing the right to use force over Taiwan.” From Beijing’s perspective, the Taiwan issue is no longer one simply involving cross-strait relations but is embedded in China’s domestic national rejuvenation and the strategic competition between itself and the United States. Moreover, Xi Jinping is the most critical factor affecting cross–strait relations. As a strong leader with a historic mission, how Xi regards the Taiwan issue will affect both the destiny of Taiwan and the security of the entire Asia-Pacific region.","PeriodicalId":274099,"journal":{"name":"Issues & Studies","volume":"605 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131880940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Chinese Global Orders: Socialism, Tradition, and Nation in China–Russia Relations","authors":"William A. Callahan","doi":"10.1142/s1013251123400088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s1013251123400088","url":null,"abstract":"While many use rational IR theory to explain Chinese foreign policy behavior, this paper follows global IR to employ interpretivist theory to examine how Chinese elites understand their country’s role in the world. In particular, it explores the Chinese global order ideas of socialism, tradition, and nation through a comparative analysis of how they work in China–Russia relations, especially after China’s 20th Communist Party Congress in 2022. The first section presents a critical analysis of the realist understanding of the China–Russia–U.S. strategic triangle. It argues that the socialist concept of “united front work” better explains Chinese (and Russian) policy in terms of short-term “tactical triangles.” To probe China’s long-term global order ideas, the second section explores narratives of tradition to examine the concentric circles model of global order seen in Chinese tianxia and Russian Eurasianism. To understand these competing Russocentric and Sinocentric global orders, the third section explores how each country’s official historiography highlights narratives of the nation and especially how national rejuvenation requires correcting the “national humiliation” of lost territories. Rather than see these narratives in a linear chronological history — i.e., from tradition to socialism to nationalism — this paper considers how they overlap in socialism, tradition, and nation, a non-linear dynamic triad of global order ideas. It concludes first that further research is necessary to examine the interrelation of these three narratives: while nation and tradition are often employed to support the overarching narrative of socialism in recent years, this could certainly change. The conclusion then argues that while these narratives may be coherent theoretically, they have not been very successful in achieving Beijing and Moscow’s foreign policy objectives.","PeriodicalId":274099,"journal":{"name":"Issues & Studies","volume":"115 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132569846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Resisting China’s ICT Influence in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Bandwagoning-for-Profit Perspective","authors":"Domingo I-KWEI Yang","doi":"10.1142/s1013251123500042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s1013251123500042","url":null,"abstract":"In light of the increasingly pivotal role of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the escalating US-China competition, this paper explores why US-led anti-Chinese information and communications technology (ICT) campaigns have not resonated with African countries. It notes that Washington’s narrative about China’s ICT activities in the region corresponds with Stephen Walt’s “balance of threat,” emphasizing the threat of China and demanding that African states balance against its cyber aggression. It argues, however, that American policymakers should focus more on Randall Schweller’s “bandwagoning for profit” to resist China’s ICT influence in the region because the pitfalls of malignant Chinese ICTs are outweighed by the opportunities and prospects of mobile-driven digital transformation there. This paper explores Washington’s unsatisfactory approach toward the SSA, traces China’s long-term penetration into the digital sector among African countries, and argues that the country’s strategic objective in the region is to establish a digital ecosystem filled with Chinese technologies and devices. It then evaluates the region’s digital prospects and the yearning among African countries to learn from China’s late development path. The paper concludes that China is not winning hearts and minds in the region and both strategies of balancing and bandwagoning persist in Sino-African relations. African countries would not always bandwagon with China if there were more alternatives. To resist the country’s ICT influence in the region, Washington should engage with Africa’s ICT industries, deepen trade relations and help to grow its digital economy.","PeriodicalId":274099,"journal":{"name":"Issues & Studies","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114993136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding the Interaction between Local Government Guidance Funds and the Local Rule of Law in China’s Central-Local Relation Paradigm","authors":"Han Zhu, W. Shen","doi":"10.1142/s1013251123500030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s1013251123500030","url":null,"abstract":"The central–local structure is a unique perspective for both China’s constitutional law and party-state structure. However, the conventional approach to this issue pays great attention to its structural framework. This paper takes a unique approach to the functionality of local government guidance funds, an increasingly frequently used method for local governments to implement national projects like Made in China 2025. The project has been one of the several controversies between the United States and China in their ongoing trade confrontation. Built upon an analysis of paradigms in central–local relations, this paper further investigates the rule of law movement at the level of local government, an often ignored and under-discussed aspect of China’s central–local structure. The tentative conclusion is that the use of local government guidance funds facilitates local competition and promotes the rule of law.","PeriodicalId":274099,"journal":{"name":"Issues & Studies","volume":"97 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134540964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From Entrepreneur to Investor: China’s Semiconductor Industrial Policies","authors":"T. Marukawa","doi":"10.1142/s1013251123500017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s1013251123500017","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the nature and evolution of China’s developmental state through a detailed case study of the country’s semiconductor industrial policy. China, since the 1980s, can be described as an entrepreneurial developmental state due to its prioritizing of economic growth and use of direct investment in its industries. The country’s semiconductor industrial policy during the 1980s and 1990s fits neatly into this model due to the government’s focus on developing national champions. With the failure of these projects, however, the government was forced to adopt the policies of a general developmental state and use indirect incentives to promote the growth of its IC (integrated circuit) industry. Several hybrid and foreign firms began to develop as a result of these policies. The Chinese government launched a new industrial policy in 2014 to revitalize its IC industry, indicating a return to the entrepreneurial state model. China established National IC Funds which amassed huge sums of money from the state budget and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Close scrutiny of the investments of these funds reveals that 54% was risked on two national champions while the rest was diversified among more than 300 firms when accounting for indirect investment through investment companies. This diversification is representative of the investor state model. The recent bankruptcy and ensuing scandals suggest that China’s entrepreneurial state suffers from serious deficiencies in its governance. This study concludes that the Chinese government should reconsider its development model and consider transforming itself into that of a more cautious investor state while improving its governance mechanisms.","PeriodicalId":274099,"journal":{"name":"Issues & Studies","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128707705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Political Elite’s Thematic Framing of China in Recent Central European Elections","authors":"Jan Hornát, László Csicsmann, Joanna Starzyk-Sulejewska","doi":"10.1142/s1013251123500029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s1013251123500029","url":null,"abstract":"China is geographically distant from Central European states, but cultural, economic and political exchanges between the regions are increasing. As such, the perception of China in these societies is susceptible to frames and narratives that are either instrumentally or organically created by local political elites. This paper aims to scrutinize the narratives and frames employed in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland during their most recent election cycles. It identifies five basic types of frames employed in the selected countries: sovereignty, opportunity, the balance of trade, debt-traps and human rights. This paper then concludes by evaluating these thematic frames and summarizes the key similarities in public discourses concerning relations with China.","PeriodicalId":274099,"journal":{"name":"Issues & Studies","volume":"82 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115402461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Foreign Policy of Small Caribbean States Towards China in the Cold War Era: Looking Past the Veiling","authors":"Kim Emmanuel","doi":"10.1142/s1013251122500072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s1013251122500072","url":null,"abstract":"Conventional wisdom suggests that small states’ foreign policies are constrained in several ways. These may be confined to size, material resources, geopolitical positioning and limited participation in inter-state affairs. Yet, despite their diminutiveness, small Caribbean states appeared to have acted with surprising dynamism in seeking to promote and uphold relations with China in an unlikely period, the bipolar era. Drawing from official records of their interactions and other documentary sources, these states showed themselves to be quite willing to transcend their various limitations and become rather active participants on issues aligning with their interests in the international sphere. This paper examines how policy-making between the Caribbean region and China unfolded and why it evolved the way it did. It argues that acting through the more ideational context of the Cold War era, policymakers within the Caribbean region implemented strategies and policies premised on shared ideals of Third World solidarity to further relations with China. In embarking on this analysis, two main contributions are envisaged. First, the paper addresses the knowledge gap on small Caribbean states’ foreign policy decision-making vis-à-vis China in the Cold War era. Second, interrogating the dynamic provides a unique opportunity to challenge the received wisdom on small states’ foreign policy behavior in line with an emphasis on small states agency amidst internal and international constraints.","PeriodicalId":274099,"journal":{"name":"Issues & Studies","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126873864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}