Showing papers in "East Asia in 1999"
TL;DR: This paper explored the theme of victimhood in China's contemporary political discourse and concluded that objectified discursive power remains an influential factor in Chinese politics, which offers a distinctive pole of identificatory attachment for the construction of a modernist reading of national Chinese political identity.
Abstract: Political discourse is critical to the legitimisation of China's ruling elite and critically informs its formulation and execution of political action. This study explores the theme of victimhood in China's contemporary political discourse. The constructed nature of political discourse—the ‘official story’ in Benedict Anderson's phrase—draws upon a range of supporting sources. Of central importance is the role of history and one of its key features is the portrayal of China as victim. This offers a distinctive pole of identificatory attachment for the construction of a modernist reading of national Chinese political identity. The study conducts discourse analyses of three primary texts. It is concluded that objectified discursive power remains an influential factor in Chinese politics.
47 citations
TL;DR: This article analyzed the political orientations of the Korean middle classes as they were manifested in their voting behavior in the general and presidential elections and examined the nature of the involvement of the middle classes in the context of each of the major historical events since the liberation from the Japanese colonial rule.
Abstract: The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the political orientations of the Korean middle classes as they were manifested in their voting behavior in the general and presidential elections. In addition, the present study examines the nature of the involvement of the middle classes in the context of each of the major historical events since the liberation from the Japanese colonial rule. The event-specific analysis of the middle class participation made it possible to test the fitness of different hypotheses about the political orientation of the Korean middle classes. With few notable exceptions, the middle classes had not been actively involved in protest movements. Rather, they rely on the democratic political systems to passively promote their own agenda and political transformation. Overall, the middle classes have remained a substantial and silent force, with the potential to be backbone of stability or the engine for change. Their force has been felt strongest in the general and presidential elections, where their support for or opposition to, the ruling party has consistently determined the outcomes. With the growth of voluntary associations representing a wide variety of causes, the middle classes' strength may be diluted somewhat by the number of issues for protest. A cause that finds support across the middle class
31 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the development of rural industrialization in China from the late 1950s to the mid-1990s is examined, and the driving forces behind the growth of TVEs during the 1980s and the evolving roles and challenges they face in the 1990s.
Abstract: This article examines the development of rural industrialization in China from the late 1950s to the mid-1990s. The initial attempt to industrialize China during the Great Leap Forward resulted in a short-lived rural industrialization program, epitomized by the frenzied establishment of hundreds of thousands of backyard furnaces. The second wave of rural industrialization came in the late 1960s and gave rise to the development of local “five small industries” aimed at providing goods and services for agricultural development. Since the introduction of economic reforms in the late 1970s, rural enterprises, known as township and village enterprises, have experienced explosive growth. They are no longer limited to the five small industries, but are engaged in producing consumer goods for both domestic and international markets. This article looks into the driving forces behind the growth of TVEs during the 1980s and examines the evolving roles and challenges they face in the 1990s.
21 citations
19 citations
TL;DR: The real question now is not whether a future Russian leadership will advocate a more hostile or more friendly course toward China, but if it will be able to support its wishes (whatever they may be) with the real resources necessary to pursue any consistent policy as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Views of China in today's Russia are characterized by great diversity. There are those who stand for strengthening ties with China to counterbalance the West; those who prefer Russia balancing between various power centers; and those who fear China as a growing geopolitical rival with a potential of expanding at the expense of Russian territory. Russia's government for the foreseeable future can be expected to advocate closer ties with China. However, the real question now is not whether a future Russian leadership will advocate a more hostile or more friendly course toward China, but if it will be able to support its wishes (whatever they may be) with the real resources necessary to pursue any consistent policy.
15 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that despite measurable improvements in Sino-Indian relations in recent years, the two nations still view each other as geostrategic rivals and the major motivation for New Delhi's bomb decision is that it has felt increasingly uncomfortable with the power asymmetry between India and China, and it wants to sit as an equal to China at the table of world powers by declaring itself a nuclear weapons state.
Abstract: India’s nuclear tests in May 1998 caused a major setback for the Sino-Indian relationship. This article attempts to answer why the relationship was turned around so quickly and what the strategic fallouts are of the Indian nuclear tests for future Sino-Indian relations. The author argues that despite measurable improvements in Sino-Indian relations in recent years, the two nations still view each other as geostrategic rivals. The major motivation for New Delhi's bomb decision is that it has felt increasingly uncomfortable with the power asymmetry between India and China, and it wants to sit as an equal to China at the table of world powers by declaring itself a nuclear weapons state.
9 citations
TL;DR: The economic regionalism in Northeast Asia reveals its own dynamics and is presented in a form that is different from those in Western Europe and North America as discussed by the authors, which is characterized by a flying geese pattern that has been developing in the region over time.
Abstract: Since the mid-1980s there has been a gradual but steady rise of economic regionalism in Northeast Asia. However, the economic regionalism in Northeast Asia reveals its own dynamics and is presented in a form that is different from those in Western Europe and North America. Characterized by a “flying geese pattern” that has been developing in the region over time, the regionalism is soft and open; that is, it is uninstitutionalized and less discriminatory against other economies. This ongoing regionalism in Northeast Asia will inevitably bring profound political and economic implications for the region and beyond.
9 citations
TL;DR: For example, the authors predicts that North Korea will likely move away from its self-reliance policies towards another course of action, most likely leading to the reunification of the Korean peninsula.
Abstract: The next decade on the Korean peninsula will be one of dramatic change. With a nearly nonexistent economy and its people facing severe famine, the DPRK has no choice but to move away from its self-reliance policies towards another course of action—most likely leading to reunification of the peninsula. However it plays out, the changes in Korea will have important regional implications and impact U.S. military presence in Northeast Asia. Policy makers must formulate plans now for U.S. forces in the region during, and after, Korean reunification. Despite being in shambles internally, North Korea remains a hermit kingdom standing steadfastly against the tides of change and pressures from the outside world to become part of the international community. The Korean peninsula remains a potential, and very likely, international flashpoint as no formal peace treaty was signed after the Korean War—only an armistice agreement keeps the peninsula in a fragile military stalemate. With a badly broken economy, its people continuing to face famine, the threat to resume its nuclear program, and the recent missile firings over Japan, North Korea will likely be an international flashpoint sooner rather than later.
4 citations
TL;DR: Korean unification is unlikely to be achieved in the foreseeable future; any policy that rests on assumptions that North Korea will collapse easily or imminently is dangerous as discussed by the authors, and the impact of Korean unification on the regional structure of international relations will be mixed and uncertain, but Korean unification need not affect the stability of the region in any significant way.
Abstract: Korean reunification is unlikely to be achieved in the foreseeable future; any policy that rests on assumptions that North Korea will collapse easily or imminently is dangerous. Precedents found in the international experience of divided nations suggest that systems with conflicting ideologies cannot be merged peacefully into a lasting unitary governmental structure. In the case of Korea, unification by absorption on the basis of two ideological systems as part of a unitary governmental structure. The impact of Korean unification on the regional structure of international relations will be mixed and uncertain, but the achievement of Korean reunification need not affect the stability of the region in any significant way. When the time for unification is ripe, the four powers will have no choice but to accept such a process regardless of their own anxieties and adjust to the new situation pragmatically without regard to narrowly selfish interests.
4 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an overview of Japan's involvement in Asia through trade and investments prior to the Asian economic crisis which began in July 1997 and identify Japan's responses and involvement towards the economic recovery of the crisis-hit economies in the region.
Abstract: Japan has been and will continue to be an important economic player in the Asian region through its internationalization policy involving trade, foreign investments, aid, technical and other forms of economic cooperation. More recently, despite its own domestic problems, Japan has extended financial and other forms of assistance and support to the Asian economies which have been hit by the economic crisis. As it is in its interests that the Asian region survives and recover, Japan will indeed continue to lend a helping hand to Asia, either through unilateral or multilateral forms of assistance or both. Due to growing interdependence, Asia needs Japan and Japan needs Asia. This article analyzes Japan's economic relations with Asia. In particular, it hopes to present an overview of Japan’s involvement in Asia through trade and investments prior to the Asian economic crisis which began in July 1997. Moreover, this article provides an assessment of the crisis and identifies Japan’s responses and involvement towards the economic recovery of the crisis-hit economies in the region.
3 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the impact of China's liberal political reforms on its reunification with Taiwan from the perspective of linkage theory and concludes that the liberal tendencies in internal politics have produced four domestic-international linkages favoring China in the settlement of the Taiwan issues.
Abstract: This article examines the impact of China's liberal political reforms on its reunification with Taiwan from the perspective of linkage theory. Through the liberalization of domestic politics, the post-Mao leadership has effected a fundamental change of regime type, transforming the Maoist totalitarian state to an established single-party regime. Because of this change, the Chinese Communists have increasingly considered China more as a developing country than a Marxist regime that needs a favorable regional and international environment for implementing its modernization programs. This has led to the emergence of a secular and stable China. The liberal tendencies in internal politics have produced four domestic-international linkages favoring China in the settlement of the Taiwan issues. Despite the presence of some negative linkages against China, it seems that the post-Deng leadership can take charge of the reunification issues as long as they can continue to make progress in institutionalizing its political system and in liberalizing its monolithic institutions.
TL;DR: A possible solution to the negative implications of cataclysmic reunification may rest in gradual reunification of the Koreas, with an interim industrialization of North Korea by South Korea, based on the model of the economic development zones in southeastern China as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Like Germany's reunification, essentially the annexation of East Germany by West Germany, Korean reunification looms as most likely, ultimately and largely entailing South Korea's annexation of North Korea. The awesome cost borne by West Germany for reunification has been instructive to South Korea, particularly in recognition that the material and ideological gaps between North and South Korea are far greater than those which existed between East and West Germany. A possible solution to the negative implications of cataclysmic reunificationmay rest in gradual reunification of the Koreas, with an interim industrialization of North Korea by South Korea, based on the model of the economic development zones in southeastern China; hence, the “China Model”. In such a scenario the investors in North Korea's gradual industrialization would be (primarily) the huge conglomerate South Korean corporations chaebol which seek cheaper labor pools abroad. Investment by such corporations, in cooperation with the South Korean government, and possibly supplemented by western and Japanese capital investment, would presumably raise levels of productivity and the standard of living in the economically and agriculturally ravished North. The North-South gaps would thus be gradually reduced as would the financial and other burdens South Korea would otherwise have to bear for cataclysmic reunification.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the People's Republic of China's dialectical negotiation process, including its method, conditions, form, style, nature, level, issues, time/timing/length, location, and concessions.
Abstract: This article examines the People's Republic of China's dialectical negotiation process, including its method, conditions, form, style, nature, level, issues, time/timing/length, location, and concessions. It also discusses a third party's role in the negotiation between Taipei and Beijing. Although history does not repeat itself, what the Chinese Communists have done in the past could help us to understand their present negotiation theory and practice. In this article, I am proposing a dialectical negotiating model as contrasted with the more conventional “linear,” sequential negotiating model proposed by Lucian W. Pye and Richard H. Solomon for understanding the People's Republic of China's negotiating pattern. Lack of understanding of this model creates a strong sense of distrust and mistrust between both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Taipei certainly does not want to give up its sovereign status nor does Beijing want to see Taiwan become an independent state.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that Japan and the West should help China integrate with the world economy if they want China's support in preserving a peaceful world order, and emphasize China's importance to Japan in the twenty-first century.
Abstract: While there exists mistrust between China and Japan stemming from the legacy of the Second World War, the two countries are making efforts to build mutual trust through bilateral dialogue. Growing bilateral interdependence and common interests will likely ease the mistrust and overcome obstacles to a political partnership between the two countries. In the post-Deng era, this article argues that Japan and the West should help China integrate with the world economy if they want China's support in preserving a peaceful world order. Sino-Japanese bilateral cooperation and interdependence are not only beneficial for the two countries and the Asia-Pacific region, they are also of significance for promoting global cooperation and economic development. Thus, this article emphasises China's importance to Japan and the West in the twenty-first century.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare the explanatory power of political culture and rational choice for public support of the British-led democratic reform and find that rational choice is more powerful than political culture.
Abstract: This research paper has two major objectives. First, it explains the variations in public support for the British-led democratic reform in late June 1994. Second, it attempts to account for why the reform has only received mild rather than overwhelming backing from the local public. The significance of the research lies in the fact that according to comparative studies, public attitudes do shape democratic prospects. It shows that the low priority attached to democratic reform since the handover of Hong Kong can be better understood by referring to the basis of public support for the non-demoncratic political system before 1997. Models of political culture and rational choice are put to the test in comparing their explanatory power for public support of the British-led democratic reform and the rational choice model has been found to be more powerful. The social base of the political reform, as well as the political implications of the research are also discussed in this essay.