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Showing papers in "China Report in 2010"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Tan as discussed by the authors argues that Tan's success as an institution builder and diplomatic intermediary was attributable to his ideological affinity with the increasing disillusionment with capitalist modernity in both China and India, the shifting dynamics of the Pan-Asianist movement and the conser.
Abstract: In 1927, the Buddhist scholar, Tan Yunshan, travelled to Santiniketan on the invitation of Rabindranath Tagore to teach Chinese at Visva Bharati University. Subsequent years would see him develop close ties with the Guomindang and Congress leaders, secure Chinese state funding for the first sinological institute in India and mediate between the nationalist movements during the Second World War. That a relatively marginal academic, who participated in neither the May Fourth Movement nor any major political party, and who had little prior experience of India, could have played such an important role in twentieth century Sino-Indian relations raises questions over the conditions that made possible Tan’s illustrious career. This article argues that Tan’s success as an institution builder and diplomatic intermediary was attributable to his ideological affinity with the increasing disillusionment with capitalist modernity in both China and India, the shifting dynamics of the Pan-Asianist movement and the conser...

26 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that India is no longer the central concern in the Sino-Pakistani relationship and that New Delhi's capacity to play the game-changer in the China-Pakistan relationship has grown over time.
Abstract: The China–Pakistan relationship has seen several ups and downs in the last decade and especially since 9/11. While Sino-Pakistani ties remain strong, there has been a visible drawdown in Chinese political commitment to Pakistan. Partly, this has been because of Beijing’s concerns about political instability, including terrorism, in Pakistan, and the spread of Islamic radicalism from that country into China. In part, this has also been because China’s global political rise has meant that it is more conscious of its need to adhere to international norms, which includes refraining from nuclear proliferation to Pakistan. In this context, this article argues that one, India is no longer the central concern in the Sino-Pakistani relationship and two, New Delhi’s capacity to play the game-changer in the China–Pakistan relationship has grown over time.

18 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the empirical and analytic value of disaggregating FDI data and analyzing remittance trends in the two most populous developing countries in the world, China and India, was emphasized.
Abstract: Focusing exclusively on foreign direct investment (FDI) as a comparative measure of capital inflows obscures another significant source of funds—that of monetary remittances. This article emphasizes the empirical and analytic value of disaggregating FDI data and analyzing remittance trends in the two most populous developing countries in the world, China and India. While identifying the determinants of FDI inflows dominates much of the literature on FDI, this article suggests that the concept of FDI may not be the most meaningful indicator of relative developmental performance, especially given the reality of national definitional differences in FDI, roundtrip capital, growth in portfolio investment and variation in the sources and uses of realized FDI. In this context, the article examines what motivates the respective diasporas to send money back to their homelands in the form of FDI versus remittances and the local developmental implications of these diasporic flows. It proposes that attending to verna...

16 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The characteristic feature of the geo-economic space of the People's Republic of China is that 70% of the minority population of the country is concentrated in its western region as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The characteristic feature of the geo-economic space of the People’s Republic of China is that 70 per cent of the minority population of the country is concentrated in its western region. The uneve...

11 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse China's relations with Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the South Asian regional context in terms of two strategic triangles: China-India-Sri Lanka and China- India-Maldives.
Abstract: China’s contemporary relations with both Sri Lanka and the Maldives have been described as ‘models of good relations between small and big countries’. China has been an important trading partner for Sri Lanka, with a large and growing trade surplus in China’s favour in the last few years. At the same time it has also been a significant source of investment and foreign economic assistance to Sri Lanka. Similarly, while China enjoys a large surplus in its trade with the Maldives as well, it is also a significant source of economic assistance and tourism for the Maldives. Given that India is in many ways the preeminent power in South Asia, China’s relations with Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the South Asian regional context have been analysed in terms of two ‘strategic triangles’: China–India–Sri Lanka and China–India–Maldives. What emerges from this analysis is that the sustenance of the cooperative momentum in the China-India relationship is crucial to the improvement of China’s relations with South Asia a...

10 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors analyzes the labour regime that has taken shape in the construction sector in post-reform India and China and argues that there is a striking parallel in both countries, both in the process involved in the formation of labour regimes as well as in the outcome it has produced for the workers.
Abstract: This article analyzes the labour regime that has taken shape in the construction sector in post-reform India and China. In both countries, expansion of the urban sector has entailed large-scale labour mobilization of wage workers from the lowest agrarian strata. Based on an examination of flexibilities in labour con-tracts, wage-related issues and the enclosures built into the worksites, it argues that there is a striking parallel in India and China, both in the process involved in the formation of labour regimes as well as in the outcome it has produced for the workers in the construction sector.

9 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored how the rivalry between the expanding British Indian and Russian empires, as well as the turbulent politics of the Republican era in China, placed insurmountable difficulties in the way of this once resilient group of Indian merchants, eventually leading to their complete exodus from this region of China by the late 1940s.
Abstract: The presence of Indian traders in Xinjiang is largely discounted as a factor of significance when analyzing the relations between India and China in the modern era. However, hundreds of Indian sojourners and settlers were present in the main towns and surrounding areas of southern Xinjiang over a period of several centuries until the middle of the twentieth century. This article explores how the rivalry between the expanding British Indian and Russian empires, as well as the turbulent politics of the Republican era in China, placed insurmountable difficulties in the way of this once-resilient group of Indian merchants, eventually leading to their complete exodus from this region of China by the late 1940s.

8 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argues that the so-called Chinese string of pearls policy needs to be examined from the perspectives of those small countries of this maritime region that are said to be supporting Chinese strategic interests in the region by providing naval bases to China.
Abstract: This article argues that the so-called Chinese string of pearls policy needs to be examined from the perspectives of those small countries of this maritime region that are said to be supporting Chinese strategic interests in the region by providing naval bases to China. Bangladesh neither has compelling strategic reasons to be part of an anti-India policy nor is its economy dependent only on the Chinese economy—a situation which could have pushed it into such a strategy. Therefore, apprehensions of the Indian strategic community of Sino-Bangladeshi relations constituting a larger anti-India design are somewhat misplaced. Bangladesh is likely to continue to pursue a policy of making best of its relations with both countries, even though an anti-India bias in certain sections of Bangladeshi society and politics will persist. In the post-Cold War, countries are focused on how to reap the dividends of economic globalisation and such hostile policies are anachronistic and counterproductive especially from the ...

6 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The dynamics of the Sino-Bhutanese relationship and Indian and Chinese strategic interes are discussed in this article, where Bhutan faces the dilemma of not hurting the interests and sentiments of its traditional friend India while at the same time needing to respond to Chinese overtures and to solve the border problem peacefully and urgently.
Abstract: Historically the interaction between Bhutan and China was through Tibet. The annexation of Tibet by China and the later uprising in Tibet instilled a sense of fear in Bhutan causing it to close its northern border in 1960. However, Bhutan adopted a more open policy in the 1970s gradually increasing the contacts between the two neighbours. Border talks which started in 1984 resulted in an agreement in 1998 on maintaining peace and tranquility along border areas. While China and Bhutan neither have diplomatic relations nor any legal trade, growing Chinese interests in South Asia encompass Bhutan as well. Bhutan, therefore, faces the dilemma of not hurting the interests and sentiments of its traditional friend India while at the same time needing to respond to Chinese overtures and to solve the border problem peacefully and urgently; in the Sino-Bhutanese relationship, the Indian element remains the most important variable. The dynamics of the Sino-Indian relationship and Indian and Chinese strategic interes...

6 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the trajectory that Sino-Afghan relations have acquired since 2001 is analyzed and an analysis of China's key interests in the commercial, security, and political ar
Abstract: This article analyses the trajectory that Sino-Afghan relations have acquired since 2001 In doing so it undertakes an analysis of China’s key interests in the commercial, security and political ar

5 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Using a state-society framework, the authors investigates the extent of institutionalisation of human rights in Taiwan's transitional society, covering origin, transformation, impediments and espousals, creation of governmental and non-governmental institutions and re-institutionalisation.
Abstract: Scholarly works on Taiwan’s transformations have usually followed either an exclusive state-centred or society-centred approach in the study of the instutionalisation of human rights on the island. Using a state–society framework, this article investigates the extent of institutionalisation of human rights in Taiwan’s transitional society. Covering origin, transformation, impediments and espousals, creation of governmental and non-governmental institutions and re-institutionalisation, as junctures in the sequence of institutionalisation of human rights, this work helps to generate a better understanding of the transition and of the social and political forces that have contributed to this process in contemporary Taiwan. The inclusions and exclusions with respect to the societal factors and an inquiry into the nature of power distribution and state legitimacy could divulge the inputs for such an inquiry. Multiple factors influence the institutionalisation process and the transformation is necessarily a gra...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied urban poverty in the state-enterprise residential areas and private housing areas of two cities in northeastern and southwestern China and identified the main determinants of poverty.
Abstract: In China’s transition to a market economy, the old socialist system which included full employment and comprehensive social welfare for urban citizens has been replaced by an emerging labour market and a rebuilt social security. The collapse of the old system has thrown a large number of retrenched state workers into poverty and then concentrated the poor in particular communities. This study specifically addresses urban poverty in the state-enterprise residential areas and private housing areas of two cities in northeastern and southwestern China. The two-step study firstly profiles the poverty and characteristics from city to individual level and then identifies the main determinants of poverty in the early 2000s. Urban low-income households had suffered multidimensional disadvantages due to a number of factors including increasing inequality, industrial reconstruction, legacies of the socialist system and the policy and financial burdens of their (previous) affiliated danwei (work units). Data analysis...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the strategic nature of relations between Myanmar and China in the last decade and attempt to posit this equation in a South Asian context is discussed, and the impact China-Myanmar relations has on the South Asian region is discussed.
Abstract: Three decades of economic reform have led to a comprehensive recasting of China’s geostrategic priorities in its immediate periphery. China’s relations with Myanmar are an instance of a bilateral relationship that has gone from strength to strength in the past two decades following internal political upheavals in the late 1980s that motivated the two countries to reach out to each other following international opprobrium. This article will explain the strategic nature of relations between Myanmar and China in the last decade and attempt to posit this equation in a South Asian context. The structure of the article includes includes four sections—the first section is a brief introduction that captures five decades of relations between Myanmar and China from 1950 to 2000; the second section examines the comprehensive nature of their bilateral relations; the third section analyses mutual perceptions; and the concluding section focuses on the impact China–Myanmar relations has on the South Asian region. There ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In terms of maritime security, the Pacific-Indian Ocean continuum has become the centre of gravity post-9/11 with both China and India having long-term growth trajectories in terms of naval power, a process skewed in favour of the PLA Navy.
Abstract: China and India have divergent political ideologies, characteristics, aspirations, anxieties, and hence their strategic perceptions and orientations differ. Their strategic interaction in southern Asia has for its backdrop the 1962 border conflict. In terms of maritime security, the Pacific–Indian Ocean continuum has become the centre of gravity post-9/11 with both China and India having long-term growth trajectories in terms of naval power, a process skewed in favour of the PLA Navy (PLAN). Cognisance of the maritime dependency index for energy and anxieties about secure sea-lines of communication (SLOC) by China and India give rise to a ‘Malacca dilemma’ and a ‘Hormuz dilemma’ respectively. The firm belief at the politico-military apex that Beijing’s future strategic profile and relevance is inexorably linked with its naval capability gives the PLAN a steadily increasing footprint in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Active political engagements and long-term port investments in the IOR by Beijing, though ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the intensity of Sino-Nepal relations over the past decade has witnessed a lack of consistency, attributable to shifting political conditions in Nepal, and it is argued that to a large extent, Sino Nepal's relations are poised to be significantly affected by an evolving China-nepal-India triangular relationship on account of Nepal's geographic position.
Abstract: This article argues that the intensity of Sino-Nepal relations over the past decade has witnessed a lack of consistency, attributable to shifting political conditions in Nepal. From 2000 to 2010, Nepal has experienced different political systems such as constitutional monarchy, absolute monarchy and currently a republican framework. However, Nepal’s espousal of the ‘one China’ policy, particularly as it concerns Tibet, has been steady and enduring, as has the logic that Sino-Nepal relations are not strictly ‘bilateral’ in nature but also potentially serve as a channel for Nepal to connect to a wider canvas including Central Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia. It is also argued that to a large extent, Sino-Nepal relations are poised to be significantly affected by an evolving China–Nepal–India triangular relationship on account of Nepal’s geographic position. Effective consolidation of this triangular relationship is vital to ensure political stability in Nepal and therefore security for both China and India.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the impact of the crisis on developing countries in terms of growth, investment and integration with the world economy, and the response of policy makers in these economies to mitigate the adverse impact.
Abstract: This paper examines five issues: 1) Recent performance of developing countries in terms of growth, investment and integration with the world economy; 2) The impact of the crisis on these economies; 3) The response of policy makers in these economies to mitigate the adverse impact, in particular, the nature of the stimulus packages implemented in these economies; 4) The role developing countries can play in the recovery of the world economy; and 5) The role of China in the recovery, and, in particular, how to deal with the bilateral imbalance between the US and China. Special attention is paid to the behaviour of the economies of the developing country members of the G20 (DG20).1 Finally, the paper discusses what the crisis has revealed about the interests of Russia, India and China in the world economy and consequently a possible strategy for the G20 which would serve their interests.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors pointed out that the rise of China offers greater scope for both South Asia as a region and SAARC as an institution to expand and grow, and that China in its affiliation to SAARC would aspire for a greater purpose in South Asia and that could shape the regional power politics in coming future.
Abstract: Crafting interregional cooperation that involves China as a participant has been the hallmark of Chinese foreign policy in recent times. Though the Chinese involvement in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a statement of China’s adherence to the theory of multilateral practices; it is Beijing’s orderly contact with the SAARC members and systematic ‘good-neighbourhood’ policy that have fetched adequate space to China in South Asian politics today. Consequently, Beijing institutionalises the China–South Asia network through SAARC. In addition, the rise of China offers greater scope for both South Asia as a region and SAARC as an institution to expand and grow. Given the complexities that rising powers pose in global politics, it goes without mentioning that China in its affiliation to SAARC would aspire for a greater purpose in South Asia and that could shape the regional power politics in coming future.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the haute sphere of a crisis-ravaged global financial system increasingly sees its salvation in mobilizing and disposing of the "surpluses of the Orient" in a manner that speeds up global capital accumulation.
Abstract: Naturalizing a global ‘world of capitalist totality’ serves as a modality for normalizing global processes of capital accumulation. However ‘global’ remains a project evinced in specific forms of cultural action and practices. This preliminary article juxtaposes two vastly separated spheres of global economy and society that are rarely considered together. The haute sphere of a crisis ridden global financial system increasingly sees its salvation in mobilizing and disposing of the ‘surpluses of the Orient’ in a manner that speeds up global capital accumulation. In this light the financial crisis and the enhanced global role and aspirations of Asian states, in particular China and India, may lead to compromises in the ways both states have articulated local, national and global accumulation processes to one another, and mediated their impact on marginalized domestic social groups. Historians have traditionally misrecognized struggles of subordinated social groups to resist surrendering their claims to capi...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the sixtieth anniversary of the People's Republic of China was marked by a display of China's military strength and its wealth, and the authors focused on three themes: history; foreign relations and future prospects.
Abstract: Anniversaries are occasions for celebration and for taking stock of past problems as well as successes as a basis for looking ahead. But it is important to acknowledge first the enormity of the achievements of the People’s Republic. The sixtieth anniversary has been marked in Beijing by a display of China’s military strength and its wealth. The “sick man” of Asia of a century ago has been transformed into one of the world’s economic power-houses. Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. The Chinese economy ranks as the largest in the world. It has become one of the world’s greatest trading nations and its influence is growing in every continent. However, in assessing the significance of these sixty years this paper will focus on three themes: history; foreign relations and future prospects.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the rise of India and China represent competing hegemonies in the emerging world or do they represent alternative and new trends in the contemporary world that seek to promote structures of cooperation and equity, autonomy and self-determination.
Abstract: Does the rise of India and China represent competing hegemonies in the emerging world or do they represent alternative and new trends in the contemporary world that seek to promote structures of cooperation and equity, autonomy and self-determination? The neo-realist paradigm only talks of India and China as rivals, enemies or allies, but there is also an alternative geo-civilisational view that sees the complex of linkages between these two from historical times to the present day. The probable scenario is the simultaneous unfolding of both the trends—the rise of India, China and some other countries and their entry to the big power club, on the one hand, and those very policies being increasingly challenged and the demand for democratisation growing in strength at various levels within countries and across the world, on the other.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The United States is in a unique position today of leading without a remotely credible challenger anywhere in the world (akin to the leadership challenges of the kind the Soviet Union posed during the Cold War, or the great powers did to each other until 1945). Accordingly, enemies have to be manufactured in order to convince the rest of the world to remain in line, and that must always generate instability and conflict as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The United States is in a unique position today of leading without a remotely credible challenger anywhere in the world (akin to the leadership challenges of the kind the Soviet Union posed during the Cold War, or the great powers did to each other until 1945). Accordingly, enemies have to be manufactured in order to convince the rest of the world to remain in line, and that must always generate instability and conflict. The threat to world peace lies in the American capacity and compulsion to lead the world and a virtually worldwide demand that it should do so. Multipolarity is neither more rational nor necessarily preferable, despite its apparent attractions. The Trilateral must insert itself strictly within these circumstances thus obtained.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The concept of "national interests" does not quite explain the various volte faces that communist China has made over its history, nor its concern with the global distribution of power.
Abstract: The concept of ‘national interests’ does not quite explain the various volte faces that communist China has made over its history, nor its concern with the global distribution of power. The Chinese seem to believe that there are no permanent (national) interests, and whether someone is a friend or enemy is decided by the world order and China’s or any other power’s role in and relationship with it. For China, order in itself is neither desirable nor undesirable but it is an adversarial world or domestic order that decides and forces Chinese response. This does not always mean an antagonistic or irreconcilable contradiction. Indeed, with a few exceptions, Chinese foreign policy has almost always tried to eschew confrontation. China’s identity as a permanent member of the UN Security Council since 1971 and as one of the five acknowledged nuclear powers has, however, meant that it has sought increasingly to take on a system-management role in the world. This in turn may not necessarily lead to the best of ti...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that there is an absence of a clear policy of rural industrialization in India to absorb labour from agriculture that can help increase labour productivity and improve rural incomes.
Abstract: The present paper argues that there is an absence of a clear policy of rural industrialization in India to absorb labour from agriculture that can help increase labour productivity and improve rural incomes. Agricultural growth, combined with clear policy of rural industrialization, is important for an equitable rural–urban growth. To this end, equitable land distribution, rural infrastructure and services, human capital development (literacy and health) and governance are very crucial—in the attainment of all of which China attained a fair degree of success. Therefore, these are some of the lessons that Indian policymakers may take from the Chinese model of rural development.