Showing papers in "China Report in 2012"
TL;DR: This article showed that geyi was actually a very short-lived attempt to deal with numbered lists that came to China from India in great profusion during the early medieval period, and that the current misunderstanding of the true nature of geyI is purely a matter of modern scholarship.
Abstract: The term geyi is often rendered as ‘matching concepts’ and held to be a key means for the transmission of Buddhism from India to China. It is said to be a translation technique whereby Buddhists borrowed Taoist terms to express Indian ideas in Chinese. This study thoroughly debunks that notion, demonstrating that geyi was actually a very short-lived attempt to deal with numbered lists that came to China from India in great profusion during the early medieval period, and that the current misunderstanding of the true nature of geyi is purely a matter of modern scholarship.
50 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluate what rare earth elements are and explore China's role in the global supply-demand equations, including possible repercussions if rare earth element supply were to be disrupted.
Abstract: The concentration of rare earth elements (REEs) production in China raises the vital issue of supply susceptibility. Until recently, the global dependency on China for rare earths was a well-kept secret. But word started to spread fast after Beijing cut export quotas by 70 per cent for the second half of 2010, sending prices of some oxides—the purified form of rare earth elements sky-rocketing. This article seeks to evaluate what rare earth elements are and explores China’s role in the global supply-demand equations. It also explores the history of rare earth elements and China’s current monopoly over the industry, including possible repercussions if rare earth elements supply were to be disrupted.
33 citations
TL;DR: This article provided a comparative overview of Japanese colonial banks before World War II with an emphasis on their roles as banks of issue in Taiwan, Korea and Northeast China, and discussed similarities and differences in these banks' note circulation patterns, in their note-reserve requirements and their actual application.
Abstract: This article provides the first comparative overview in English of Japanese colonial banks before World War II with an emphasis on their roles as banks of issue in Taiwan, Korea and Northeast China. It discusses at length similarities and differences in these banks’ note circulation patterns, in their note-reserve requirements and their actual application, and in their geographical spread and respective colonial mandates. There was some variation in Japanese bank note issuance in the colonial setting of Korea and Taiwan, in ‘Manchukuo’ and in those parts of China that remained nominally sovereign. But all Japanese colonial banks seem, in one way or another, to have astutely adjusted the spread of their note issue in order to control for flagging demand due to nationalist boycotts, or to conversely cash in on demand spurts for notes resulting from crises in the indigenous financial sector. The banks of issue under review here were theoretically subject to a 100 per cent reserve requirement, but the make-up...
20 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a new politico-strategic landscape has emerged in which, ASEAN not only seeks China's economic support perceived to be crucial for the development of the region, but also worries about China's growing power and the possibility of Chinese domination over the region.
Abstract: The rise of China has brought forth new sets of opportunities and challenges for Southeast Asia. A new politico-strategic landscape has emerged in which, ASEAN not only seeks China’s economic support perceived to be crucial for the development of the region, but also worries about China’s growing power and the possibility of Chinese domination over the region. ASEAN as a regional interlocutor has responded to the new phenomenon by deploying a hedging strategy that seeks to benefit from the opportunities and manage the challenges emanating from the rise of China. While ASEAN’s policy of ‘honest brokerage’ has allowed the presence of other powers to balance China, its policy of enmesh China has facilitated China’s role as a stakeholder in the ASEAN cooperative processes.
18 citations
TL;DR: ASEAN and China share a complex relationship in economic terms; while they collaborate in several spheres, conflict of interests is not uncommon either as mentioned in this paper, and the proposal for an ASEAN-China Free Trade A...
Abstract: ASEAN and China share a complex relationship in economic terms; while they collaborate in several spheres, conflict of interests is not uncommon either. The proposal for an ASEAN–China Free Trade A...
17 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors look into the recent development of Indonesia's relations with China and find that notable progress can be seen in political and security relations, despite the fact that this dimension was at the very beginning of the relationship.
Abstract: This article looks into the recent development of Indonesia’s relations with China. Notable progress can be seen in political and security relations, despite the fact that this dimension was at the...
16 citations
TL;DR: The authors re-examines the contribution of India-China interactions to these processes and argues that the diffusion of Buddhism in China was an outcome of multi-ethnic collaborations and the ingenuity of Chinese and foreign monks in making the doctrine adaptable to Chinese society.
Abstract: Recent studies have significantly altered the ways in which the early history of Buddhism in China and the Buddhist interactions between ancient India and China were perceived. The accepted views about the route of the initial transmission of Buddhist doctrines, the early method of rendering Buddhist ideas into Chinese and the notion of a decline of Buddhism in China after the eighth century have all come under scrutiny. Using these analyses and arguments, this essay attempts to reassess some of the key issues concerning the spread and successful establishment of Buddhism in China. In particular, it re-examines the contribution of India–China interactions to these processes and argues that the diffusion of Buddhism in China was an outcome of multi-ethnic collaborations and the ingenuity of Chinese and foreign monks in making the doctrine adaptable to Chinese society.
15 citations
TL;DR: This article analyzed the stages of evolution of local democratisation in rural China from the perspective of innovation, especially grassroots innovation studies, and argued that the interaction between villagers and the government/Party moves the process of rural political innovations forward.
Abstract: This article analyses the stages of evolution of local democratisation in rural China from the perspective of innovation, especially grassroots innovation studies. Based on an interpretation of four major cases of villagers’ political innovations over the past three decades in rural China, we argue that: (a) villagers’ collective action triggers political reform in rural China; (b) the interaction between villagers and the government/Party moves the process of rural political innovations forward; and (c) the innovation process model drawn from the field of grassroots innovation studies, consisting of four stages—problem/motivation, trigger, initiative/innovation and diffusion/impact—explains the trajectory of institutional change in rural politics just as it explains the trajectory of grassroots technological and economic institutional innovation.
11 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a multifocal lens is applied to understand the relationship between Myanmar and China and their effects on its overarching relationship with China, as it too has multiple levels of engagement with Myanmar at both domestic and international levels.
Abstract: Over the past two decades there has been increasing international attention to the interactions between Myanmar and China. While China has significant influence in relation to other international actors, there is also significant calculation by the government in Myanmar in an effort to ensure that no single external actor calls the policy shots. Instead, the policy choices of the government illustrate that they are calculated on a case-by-case basis to respond to emerging security threats and challenges. However, this represents only a partial truth because there are myriad actors competing for legitimacy in Myanmar which also have various relationships with external actors. Indeed, to fully understand the relationship between Myanmar and China a multifocal lens is required to appreciate the nuances and tensions within Myanmar and their effects on its overarching relationship with China. Furthermore, this lens must also be applied to China, as it too has multiple levels of engagement with Myanmar at both ...
9 citations
TL;DR: The authors traces the reception history of Xuanzang's "Record of the Western Regions" (Xiyu ji) and shows how the text was translated and used by Western scholars in the nineteenth century and used as a source for the positivist discovery of India's Buddhist past, how it became romanticised and "spiritualised" through popularisation.
Abstract: This article first traces the reception history of Xuanzang’s ‘Record of the Western Regions’ (Xiyu ji). It shows how the text was translated and used by Western scholars in the nineteenth century and used as a source for the positivist discovery of India’s Buddhist past, how it became romanticised and ‘spiritualised’, as it were, through popularisation. This seems to have parallels in East Asian history and in the modern reception in Asia. The problem with all these attempts of interpretation lies in a decontextualisation of the text, and the last part of the article attempts to show on the basis of three case studies how the Xiyu ji should be read in a broader and—I would claim—deeper contextualising way.
7 citations
TL;DR: The South China Sea dispute which has spilled over from the twentieth to the twenty-first century, is yet to find an amicable solution as discussed by the authors, and the root cause of this tension is the dispute among the vario...
Abstract: The South China Sea dispute which has spilled over from the twentieth to the twenty-first century, is yet to find an amicable solution. The root cause of this tension is the dispute among the vario...
TL;DR: The authors examines Kang Youwei's perception of India as well as his impact on the Chinese discourse on India during the late Qing and Republican periods and argues that his journey to and writings about India were of great significance in shaping the modern Chinese perceptions of India.
Abstract: This paper examines Kang Youwei’s perception of India as well as his impact on the Chinese discourse on India during the late Qing and Republican periods. The analysis is pursued on the basis of a letter entitled ‘A letter to Liang Qichao and other students on [the fact that] the Fall of India [as an independent country] was due to the Independence of Its Provinces’. Kang wrote this letter to Liang, his closest student and associate who was also a famous intellectual, when Kang was in Darjeeling in May 1902. Kang was keen to diagnose India’s collapse to British colonialism for the purpose of helping China avoid a similar fate. This essay argues that his journey to and writings about India were of great significance in shaping the modern Chinese perceptions of India. He, for the first time, explicitly made a comprehensive comparison between China and India and positioned India as a negative example for the Chinese. From then on, India’s image among many Chinese intellectuals was that of a failed nation una...
TL;DR: The authors argues that the contradictions evident in China's neighbourhood foreign policy reflect its continuing search for a model of international relations that can balance its domestic interests such as the need for political stability, including regime stability, on the one hand and its exter...
Abstract: Despite China’s claims of a foreign policy of ‘peaceful rise’/‘peaceful development’ and of seeking a ‘harmonious world’, and despite its economic openness and active participation in economic multilateralism, China’s neighbours continue to be concerned about the overall direction and intent of Beijing’s security policies. These concerns are particularly heightened by China’s rapid military modernization of the past couple of decades. The announcement in 2010 that China considered its territorial claims in the South China Sea a ‘core interest’, can be seen as a setback to its regional diplomacy, so diligently crafted over the years and drove its Southeast Asian neighbours to seek closer engagement with the US. This article argues that the contradictions evident in China’s neighbourhood foreign policy reflect its continuing search for a model of international relations that can balance its domestic interests such as the need for political stability, including regime stability, on the one hand and its exter...
TL;DR: The authors reconstructs colonial era linkages between India and China from 1905 to 1930 using primary sources in India and Chinese, especially British intelligence reports, and reconstructs the history of the two countries.
Abstract: Relying on primary sources in India and China, especially British intelligence reports, this essay attempts to reconstruct colonial era linkages between the two countries from 1905 to 1930. In the ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors reveal the Bengal connections in historical Yunnan from the medieval age to the early modern period through a scrutiny of Chinese and certain non-Chinese sources, and construct historical routes linking the Bengali world and Yunnan, both by land and sea.
Abstract: Yunnan, a southwestern frontier province in China is located in mainland Southeast Asia and is inhabited by diverse cross-regional ethnic groups. This essay attempts to reveal the Bengal connections in historical Yunnan from the medieval age to the early modern period through a scrutiny of Chinese and certain non-Chinese sources. It first discusses the use of cowry currency in Yunnan and other areas around the Bay of Bengal, and then constructs historical routes linking the Bengali world and Yunnan, both by land and sea. Furthermore, the spread of Buddhism into Yunnan is highlighted to demonstrate Bengali cultural influence. The Bengal connections in Yunnan hence, shed some light on both historical Yunnan and the formation of Chinese frontiers.
TL;DR: In this article, a case study of how some Buddhist ideas and practices were Sinicised when they were brought to China, particularly through Buddhist translations, is presented, where the authors discuss the effort to recast a MahA vairocana sA«tra [SA«tra of the great Sun] of an Indian origin by virtue of a Chinese cosmological framework known as jiugong (nine palaces).
Abstract: By discussing Yixing’s effort to recast a maa¹‡a¸ ala of an Indian origin (originally described in the MahA vairocana sA«tra [SA«tra of Great Sun]) by virtue of a Chinese cosmological framework known as jiugong (‘Nine Palaces’), this article provides a case study of how some Buddhist ideas and practices were Sinicised when they were brought to China, particularly through Buddhist translations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an oral history account of the integration of Tawang from the perspective of the local people, drawing on more than a hundred conversations with the people in the region and the author's access to local administrative documents, and locally publis...
Abstract: With the departure of the British from South Asia in 1947, the transition of the NEFA (North East Frontier Agency, later Arunachal Pradesh) border from the colonial to the post-colonial era followed a predictable and conventional geopolitical script. India began consolidating its frontiers to create borders where none had existed. It adopted a restrained policy of non-interference, in which local traditions—political, cultural and social—were respected and protected. Institutional support and effective policy implementation proved to be the tools that made NEFA, including parts of it that had hitherto never been administered by British India, a part of modern India. The article draws on hitherto unpublished field research carried out in the Tawang tract to tell an oral history account of the integration of Tawang from the perspective of the local people. It draws on more than a hundred conversations with the people in the region and the author’s access to local administrative documents, and locally publis...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors look at the historical trajectory of Southeast Asian Chinese, their unique business practices and how globalisation has been an element of change in terms of their outlook towards making use of business opportunities and searching for new models and patterns to survive and succeed in the global economy.
Abstract: Among all the people who have left mainland China’s shores, it is the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia that is the most important, not only for the numbers but also for the economic contribution they made for both the host as well as the home countries. The economic organisation of the Southeast Asian Chinese has been unique in many respects and many studies show their retention of ancient cultural practices which proved to be their strength during the post-colonial era. This article is an attempt to look at the historical trajectory of Southeast Asian Chinese, their unique business practices and how globalisation has been an element of change in terms of their outlook towards making use of business opportunities and searching for new models and patterns to survive and succeed in the global economy.
TL;DR: The signals from Washington that it would not allow growing Chinese power transition in East Asia have altered the strategic reality in East Asian with the US having to manage a power transition.
Abstract: China’s rise has altered the strategic realities in East Asia with the US having to manage a power transition in the region. The signals from Washington that it would not allow growing Chinese powe...
TL;DR: This paper studied the role of public opinion in the policymaking of an authoritarian state which ascribes no place for individual freedom and space is both a challenging and a stimulating endeavour, and the authors of Strong Society, Smart State is the first systematic study of China's public opinion and its impact on the making of its Japan policy and a fascinating one.
Abstract: James Reilly’s Strong Society, Smart State is the first systematic study of China’s public opinion and its impact on the making of its Japan policy and a fascinating one. Exploring the role of public opinion in the policymaking of an authoritarian state which ascribes no place for individual freedom and space is both a challenging and a stimulating endeavour. In a way, Reilly’s book actually combines four mammoth topics in Chinese studies and analyses them through the prism of public opinion: the appeal of popular nationalism, the linkage of public opinion with Chinese foreign policy, the role of a propaganda state and finally, the broad strategic contours of SinoJapanese relations. Through a comprehensive analysis of China’s relations with Japan from 1980 to 2010, Reilly shows the impact of popular nationalism that swept across China in the early 2000s and puts forward the interesting argument that Chinese leaders responded to the populist pressure through an impressive combined strategy of tolerance, responsiveness, persuasion and repression that has essentially enhanced the sustainability and continuity of the rule of the Communist Party of China. In effect, the author’s notion of responsive authoritarianism challenges the two existing broad debates on the subject that the rise of popular nationalism in the reform era has pushed the state towards adopting a more aggressive foreign policy and that a populist participation necessarily indicates the fall of a Communist party state and its eventual transition to a democratic system. The strength of the book lies in providing an explanation for the conditions under which public opinion is likely to influence foreign policy of an authoritarian Chinese state. As China integrated with the global economy in the reforms era, its polity has become pluralised with many new voices, institutions and actors coming to the fore and impinging on the making of the foreign policy. Using the prism of public opinion to understand the nature of the changing authoritarian state’s foreign policy is indeed a landmark contribution. The gravity of Reilly’s work is magnified when one recalls
TL;DR: The evolving dynamics of Southeast Asia-China relations in the twenty-first century is an outcome of fundamental changes taking place in (a) the global and regional structures of power; and (b) the attributes and priorities of the actors operating within and influencing the regional strategic landscape.
Abstract: The evolving dynamics of Southeast Asia–China relations in the twenty-first century is an outcome of fundamental changes taking place in (a) the global and regional structures of power; and (b) the attributes and priorities of the actors operating within and influencing the regional strategic landscape. These trends have contributed to significant shifts in the character of China’s bilateral relations with ASEAN member states, substantially enhanced the Chinese shadow over Southeast Asia and introduced considerable strain on ASEAN’s efforts at a consensus-based approach towards a rising China. While Southeast Asia continues to debate whether China’s rise is a peaceful process or not, three important trends have shaped the relationship of China and Southeast Asia. First, the rise of China offers a huge opportunity for the economic development of the region. Second, the asymmetry in the balance of power between China and ASEAN is increasing. Third, rising China has shown greater assertion in its relations with Southeast Asia, forcing ASEAN countries to develop appropriate strategies to manage China. These developments have resulted in a multi-tiered structure of relationships connecting domestic, regional and systemic equations.
TL;DR: Xu et al. as mentioned in this paper examined the early history of the Nālanda University, the South Asian monks from Nαlanda who were active in China during the 6th and 7th centuries, and how Xuanzang may have come to know about the renowned educational institution in India through the works of these south Asian monks and their disciples.
Abstract: While the Chinese monk Xuanzang’s travels in South Asia are well known, the reason why he decided to make Nālandā his main destination has not been previously examined in detail. This article focuses on the early history of the Nālandā University, the South Asian monks from Nālandā who were active in China during the sixth and seventh centuries, and how Xuanzang may have come to know about the renowned educational institution in India through the works of these South Asian monks and their disciples. The article also tries to clarify the possible date of Xuanzang’s departure for India.