Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies最新文献

{"title":"Shift in China’s commitment to regional environmental governance in Northeast Asia?","authors":"K. Otsuka","doi":"10.1080/24761028.2018.1504643","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/24761028.2018.1504643","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines how China’s economic and social development has influenced its commitment to regional environmental governance in Northeast Asia. Environmental problems in China have drawn cross-border attention, and China must address these serious problems. On the other hand, China is a unique country in East Asia because it has succeeded in growing its economy and competing in an international marketplace while also maintaining an authoritarian regime. Considering this unique position in the region, how can China solve common environmental challenges in a cooperative manner? What factors have affected cross-border cooperation with China’s counterparts? This article points out that there are two principles found in environmental diplomacy in China: common but differentiated responsibility in global environmental issues and building friendship and partnerships with neighboring countries. These principles have affected China’s commitment to regional environmental cooperation in the way of mixture of modest and defensive attitudes. Moreover, in the context of regional environmental cooperation in Northeast Asia, the article argues that Japan has been an important factor for China to learn Japanese experiences as well as to enjoy Japan’s affluent financial assistance. Recent economic and social development in China has made its commitment more positive in global environmental cooperation on the one hand and more uncertain in terms of regional environmental governance on the other hand. The transnational network of non-state actors is now limited in their opportunities to commit to the regional environmental governance; however, there can be hope for sustainable future in terms of neighboring partnerships.","PeriodicalId":37218,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies","volume":"7 1","pages":"16 - 34"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/24761028.2018.1504643","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60141872","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 People’s Liberation Army in China’s people’s congresses: how the PLA utilizes people’s congresses","authors":"Tomoki Kamo","doi":"10.1080/24761028.2018.1498313","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/24761028.2018.1498313","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The main purpose of this research is to expose political functions of the delegates to the local people’s congresses in China. It focuses on the local people’s congress delegates selected from the circles of the People’s Liberations Army (PLA). Using the data from the Jiangsu Province Yangzhou Municipal People’s Congress from 1998 to 2015, this research examines how the information gathering function of the local people’s congresses has changed over the last decade or so. In particular, analyzing the contents of the bills submitted to the people’s congress by the delegates selected from the PLA circles, this research depicts how the PLA has gradually started expressing its demands through the people’s congresses over the last decade. At the end of the 1990s, the PLA almost never submitted bills to the local people’s congresses. In regards to this reason, an individual familiar with the local people’s congresses responded that “even if the PLA had any demands it did not submit bills since it was able to solve these issues within its own system.” However, in the recent years, the PLA has been submitting its requests to the people’s congresses in the form of bills. This research explores the political meaning of the change in the relationship between the local people’s congresses and the PLA.","PeriodicalId":37218,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies","volume":"7 1","pages":"35 - 49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/24761028.2018.1498313","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41542711","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":"Book Review for Globalization against Democracy authored by Guoguang Wu","authors":"Jianyong Yue","doi":"10.1080/24761028.2018.1477465","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/24761028.2018.1477465","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37218,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies","volume":"7 1","pages":"76 - 78"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/24761028.2018.1477465","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48216688","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":"China’s authoritarian path to development: is democratization possible?, by Liang Tang, Abingdon, Routledge, 2017, 263pp., ISBN: 978-1-138-01647-7","authors":"Satoshi Amako","doi":"10.1080/24761028.2018.1483700","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/24761028.2018.1483700","url":null,"abstract":"This book attempts to explain why political reforms in China lag behind the country’s remarkable socioeconomic transformation which has been underway since reform and opening up. Despite consistent scholarly attention both in China and abroad, there appears to be no easy answer to the above conundrum. The author, an excellent political scientist now with the School of Political Science at Waseda University, analyses the dynamics of China’s political system not only through the lens of Western political research approaches, but also in the context of China’s unique historical and cultural experience. After receiving formal training in Orthodox Marxism political theory and history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at Beijing University, Dr Tang moved to Japan where he studied Western Political Theory. In his recent monograph, the author poses a question of why, despite all the rapid social and economic changes, the CCP has maintained its monopoly on political power. Furthermore, considering the bigger picture, the author seeks to understand the reality of China’s long and winding road to democracy. On the whole, the author argues in favor of analyzing Contemporary Chinese Politics under the framework of Western theories of democracy, with particular focus on Huntington’s model of the third wave of democratization. Simultaneously, Dr Tang emphasizes the necessity for studying the “preconditions” for China’s democratization. First, unlike traditional theories of democratization (which distinguish between two stages of “transition” and “consolidation”), the author proposes to add a new “pretransition” stage which he labels “a foundation-building stage for democratization”, thus emphasizing gradual changes in the process of democratization (page 17). Second, the author considers the effectiveness of China’s “authoritarian path of modernization”, arguing that it lays the foundation for subsequent democratic soft-landing and democratic consolidation (p. 17). Third, the author sets out to explore the phenomenon of “authoritarian transmutation”, the growth of civil society and its implications for the Chinese democracy movement (p. 18). The book consists of nine chapters (including the Introduction and the Conclusion). In Part I (Chapters 1 and 2), the author discusses China’s political institutions as a means of modernization. The focus here is on the relationship between the one-party system and China’s authoritarian developmentalism. The author analyses the CCP’s control over the military, state agencies, and social actors, arguing that the substitution of Mao’s era dogmatic socialism with pragmatism led to a series of legislative, administrative, and judiciary reforms, which, in turn, resulted in an increase in transparency and citizen participation. Part II (Chapters 3, 4, and 5) discusses the Chinese government’s strategy on economic, political, and social reforms. With regard to economic development strategy, the author discusses (1) the circumst","PeriodicalId":37218,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies","volume":"7 1","pages":"81 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/24761028.2018.1483700","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46206778","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":"Political survival and Yasukuni in Japan’s relations with China, by Mong Cheung, Abingdon, Routledge, 2017, 165 pp., ISBN: 978-1-138-94570-8","authors":"K. Noguchi","doi":"10.1080/24761028.2018.1477466","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/24761028.2018.1477466","url":null,"abstract":"the Chinese state the evidence of solid economic success, hence vitality of the country’s “developing authoritarianism,” or the natural result of a dependent development that has reached its limits? The questions raised above, however, do not constitute a refutation of the book’s general theoretical framework. Instead, they serve to enrich debates surrounding the relationship between capitalism, democracy, and development to greater academic sophistication. And answers to these questions would further strengthen the author’s extraordinary insights into the identical challenges facing the entire human race: “distribution and sustainability – not growth and wealth.” In this regard, as the author rightly put it, “neither neoliberalism nor state capitalism is the remedy for the other.” Consequently, for the underdeveloped Global South, the anti-developmental rules of the game as established and overseen by the Global North do not lend justification to repressive regimes, however impressive the latter’s development model of “wealth without freedom” appears to be during a certain period of time, not to mention that their way of pursuing wealth stands little chance of success in achieving genuine modernity in any meaningful way. To make the world a better place to live for the whole of humanity, therefore, rethinking globalization is essential to bringing the “political shell” back to capitalism in industrial democracies and to making development goals more achievable for the developing world. This entails painful paradigmatic and institutional innovations for the entire world in terms of building “democratic peace” and “The Wealth of World” (not narrowly “Nations”) in a creative way. But first and foremost, as the author cogently recommended in the Conclusion, concerted efforts should be made by the Global North and the Global South to seek relegitimation through “stationary growth” and “moderate growth,” respectively. Comprehensive, illuminating and insightful as this volume has unfolded, Guoguang Wu’s contribution is, from all perspectives, invaluable both academically and practically.","PeriodicalId":37218,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies","volume":"7 1","pages":"78 - 80"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/24761028.2018.1477466","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47929806","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":"How to stop North Korea’s nuclear ambition: failed diplomacy and future options","authors":"Jinwook Choi","doi":"10.1080/24761028.2018.1499426","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/24761028.2018.1499426","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT There are two kinds of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula: hostility between the U.S. and North Korea; hostility between the two Koreas. The nature of North Korea’s nuclear crisis is a mixture of those two hostilities. The crisis was exacerbated by misinterpretation and wishful thinking regarding its intentions. Another reason for North Korea’s nuclear crisis is the failure of the international community to speak with one voice on how to resolve it. Every country is different in its threat perceptions, national interests, and strategic calculations. In the grand scheme of things, however, the North Korea problem seems to be a strategic conflict between the U.S. and China. South Korea’s internal friction prevented any policy from being implemented effectively. It is not only unfair but unrealistic to handle the two hostilities separately. Any efforts to denuclearize North Korea should not undermine the security of South Korea. For example, the withdrawal of the U.S. forces from the Korean peninsula may be even worse for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula than a nuclear North Korea, if it keeps the current political system and there is no fundamental change in inter-Korean relations. Like the front and rear wheels in an automobile, the U.S.–North Korean dialogue and inter-Korean dialogue began to operate as two driving forces for a breakthrough in the nuclear crisis. The wheels should be aligned with a strong U.S.–R.O.K. alliance. Then a multilateral format like the Six-Party Talks can resume for a sustainable peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.","PeriodicalId":37218,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies","volume":"7 1","pages":"1 - 15"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/24761028.2018.1499426","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48091332","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":"Nexus between privatization and marketization during transition process: an experimental analysis based on China’s provincial panel data","authors":"K. Nakagane, Kohei Mitsunami","doi":"10.1080/24761028.2018.1496808","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/24761028.2018.1496808","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper explores the nexus between privatization and marketization in pursuit of insightful implications about effective privatization/marketization policies, particularly in institutionally underdeveloped countries like China. Our hypothesis is that, given a certain level of institutional development, we can identify causal and dynamic relationships between privatization and marketization. If market expansion facilitates private ownership more easily and rapidly than privatization promotes marketization, transition policy should emphasize market expansion even if the ultimate objective is to privatize the entire economy as extensively as possible.　We test this hypothesis with panel data from Chinese provinces to draw implications about a dynamic nexus between privatization and marketization vis-à-vis institutional background. We then develop an illustrative analysis comparing privatization-first versus marketization-first policies to examine their cumulative effects on development of private enterprises and markets in subsequent periods.","PeriodicalId":37218,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies","volume":"7 1","pages":"50 - 75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/24761028.2018.1496808","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43806096","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":"Chugoku no Tochi Seiji: Chuo no Seisaku to Chiho Seifu [China’s Land Politics: State Land Policy and the Local Government]","authors":"Kai Kajitani","doi":"10.1080/24761028.2017.1391979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/24761028.2017.1391979","url":null,"abstract":"commendable that the author restrained himself to mapping out the direction and the range of choices available for the hypothetical reforms, thus setting up further research questions without falling into any of the above-mentioned traps. The research method developed throughout the book falls under the “orthodox positivist” category. The greatest accomplishment of the book is that it comprehensively and with a great skill depicts the patterns of coexistence between the new socio-economic elite and the CCP, fully revealing the underlying mechanisms behind the Chinese political drama. Further, given the quality of the book, it is no wonder that it was awarded the 34th Institute of Developing Economies (IDE) “Developing Countries Research Encouragement Award”, thus making Dr Suzuki’s “Zhongnanhai Study Group” comrades proud and jubilant. Having discussed at length the scholarly contributions of Dr Suzuki’s monograph, I would like to conclude by reiterating that the book is a milestone achievement of the “Zhongnanhai Study” in Japan, and as such fully deserves to be publicized outside Japan (both in China and in the Anglosphere), with its crisp and lucid style particularly well-suited to the high demands of the leading English language journals.","PeriodicalId":37218,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies","volume":"6 1","pages":"236 - 240"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/24761028.2017.1391979","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48873220","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":"China’s offensive in Southeast Asia: regional architecture and the process of Sinicization","authors":"A. Suehiro","doi":"10.1080/24761028.2017.1391619","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/24761028.2017.1391619","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT During the 1990s, China had aimed at constructing good relations with neighboring countries including ASEAN members. After the start of external offensive strategy in 2001, China began to accelerate its economic involvement in Asian countries in general, and ASEAN countries in particular. At the same time, China has attempted to create China-led institutional framework and to make the region suitable to Chinese existence. This activity is called “the process of Sinicization” in this article. To explore the process of Sinicization in reference to China’s relations with CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam) and Thailand, or China’s relations with ASEAN members, the author examines in detail two cases of the Greater Mekong Subregion Scheme or GMS (since 1992) and the Nanning-based China-ASEAN EXPO or CAEXPO (since 2004) in addition to comparison of Chinese and Japanese economic involvement in Southeast Asia. Through these case studies, the author will clarify the fact that both GMS and CAEXPO become strategic institutions/organizations for not only the promotion of regional cooperation but also the creation of China-led initiatives, such as various China-ASEAN forums. Furthermore, GMS and CAEXPO have also served as instruments to support economic development of border areas in China. Finally, by reviewing the recent movement of the “One Belt One Road” (OBOR) strategy and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank or AIIB, the author posits that Chinese external offensive will be modified in the process of the OBOR and AIIB’s adjustment to international circumstances.","PeriodicalId":37218,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies","volume":"6 1","pages":"107 - 131"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/24761028.2017.1391619","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47436855","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":"Powerful patriots: nationalist protest in China’s foreign relations","authors":"T. Uemura","doi":"10.1080/24761028.2017.1391981","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/24761028.2017.1391981","url":null,"abstract":"ship” was still in statu nascendi and complex power struggles had been taking place within China’s ruling establishment. Thus, it might help the readers to grasp the complexity of the situation, if the author explains the roles other senior politicians (such as, Chen Yun or Li Xiannian) played in the foreign policy decision-making processes of that time. Having briefly discussed both the scholarly contributions and topics that require further research, I would like to conclude by reiterating the Dr Masuo’s book makes a significant contribution to the field of Chinese Diplomatic History.","PeriodicalId":37218,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies","volume":"6 1","pages":"243 - 245"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/24761028.2017.1391981","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48935133","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}