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4851. China's Cross-Regional FTA Initiatives: Towards Comprehensive National Power

Author:
Stephen Hoadley and Jian Yang
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
University of British Columbia
Abstract:
This article surveys the recent initiation of free trade talks by China. Of particular interest are the motives driving this innovation, particularly as regards negotiations with distant rather than regional partners, known as cross-regional trade agreements or CRTAs. This investigation is guided by the conceptual analysis presented by Solís and Katada in this issue of Pacific Affairs. The authors find that the initiation of cross-regional preferential trading links allows the Chinese leadership to speed up economic development, to hedge against future trade diversion in other regions of the world, to pursue domestic reform at their own chosen pace, to develop negotiating expertise in a less tense political environment, and to advance core interests in foreign economic policy and security policy by validating the concept of a peaceful rise to power. China's recent pursuit of crossregional FTAs is thus significant not only for the economic benefits they promise but also for their enhancement of China's national power and capacity for international leadership without provoking conflict. As a supplement to China's diplomacy, crossregional FTA negotiations must be recognized as an important new element of China's long-term international strategy.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
China

4852. Chinese Competition - Learning From Japan: China Challenge

Author:
Simon Collinson and Bridgette Sullivan-Taylor
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
IN THE 1970S AND 1980S THERE WAS a widespread fear in the west of Japanese economic superiority. Unprecedented growth in its gross domestic product (GDP), exports and outward foreign direct investment suggested an alternative model of market capitalism that was out-performing the United States and European economies. High-profile articles and books fed this fear and research efforts tried to identify what was different about Japan and how such differences might convey sustained competitive advantages.
Political Geography:
United States, Japan, and China

4853. WIDER Special Issue: Inequality and Poverty in China

Author:
Guanghua Wan
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
A large group of smallish countries totalling about a billion people have sheered off from the rest of mankind. As the world becomes more socially integrated this giant pool of poverty will be both unacceptable and explosive. It is the world's biggest economic problem and we need to do something about it. To know what to do we need to start with a diagnosis. While the common fate of the bottom billion has been stagnation and poverty there has been no single cause. In my recently published book The Bottom Billion I propose four distinct traps that between them account for the problem, each requiring a distinct remedy. I also argue that globalization, though it has been benign for the majority of the developing world, is not working for the bottom billion and is not likely to do so. On the contrary, it is liable to make them increasingly marginalized.
Political Geography:
China and Europe

4854. China... from the Sea: The Importance of Chinese Naval History

Author:
Benjamin Armstrong
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Conflict
Abstract:
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, China has become a source of increased focus for military strategists and policy-makers throughout the West and most especially in the United States. With the largest army in the world and obvious aspirations to, at the very least, regional power they mark one of the most significant potential threats to American military supremacy. Studies of China's martial past have been included in the professional reading of many officers in the United States Armed forces. However, there is still one common misperception with regard to China's military history. China, despite what many have written, has an important naval heritage. This heritage may not have been central to the study of Chinese history in the past; however it is important for study in the future. The Chinese government itself has included examples from this history as inspiration for their modern policy and strategy. With this fact in mind it is of vital importance that historians and strategists understand China's naval past.
Political Geography:
United States, China, America, and Soviet Union

4855. China's Quest for Alternative to Neo-liberalism: Market Reform, Economic Growth, and Labour

Author:
Dic Lo
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
Since the turn of the century, China's state and society have focused their efforts on “constructing a harmonious society”. Viewed from the perspective of globalization, these efforts represent a quest for a model of development that deviates fundamentally from neo-liberalism. In particular, state policies and institutional reforms in recent years have tended to target at labor compensation-enhancing economic growth, rather than growth based on “cheap labor”. This paper seeks to clarify the nature of the emerging Chinese economic development model, and, on that basis, to analyze its efficiency and welfare attributes. In conjunction with an analysis of China's economic growth path, which seems to have undergone a transition from labor-intensive growth to capital-deepening growth, it is argued that the new development model does represent a more feasible and desirable pursuit than neo-liberalism. The paper concludes with a discussion on the impact of this new Chinese development model on the future direction of globalization.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, and Markets
Political Geography:
China and Asia

4856. Infrastructure as Economic Density

Author:
Sangaralingam Ramesh
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
Income disparities are rising in China as a consequence of the economic reforms post 1979 which virtually gave unchallenged economic growth and prosperity to the coastal regions whose economic growth increased over the last 30 years at the expense of the interior hinterland. Institutions in China have seen the answer to restoring a rural-urban income balance by redistributing people from the interior regions of China to the prosperous coastal regions. This can be seen as a supply side reaction to the income disparity problem, which will inevitably impose the kinds of social costs, which concentrations of populations normally bring. This paper offers insights into other methods of transforming the urban-rural income disparity problem in China, the economic implications of infrastructure investment, the relevance of Krugmans 'New Economic Geography' to the transformative Economics which China has experienced over the last 30 years; and the close relationship between how Krugman's agglomeration economies arise and the development of SEZ's and HTDZ's in China.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
China and Asia

4857. China and Russia: Common Interests, Contrasting Perceptions

Author:
Bobo Lo
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
President Vladimir Putin's visit to China in March 2006 was in many respects a spectacular success. The Russian delegation was the largest and most diverse in post-Soviet times. The number of agreements, 29, represented a record in the history of the relationship. And the atmosphere was the most positive of any of Putin's overseas trips. Surveying the landscape of the relationship, there seems nothing not to like. The 4,300 km common border has finally been demarcated in its entirety; Moscow and Beijing agree on practically every regional and international issue of consequence – Chechnya, Taiwan, Iraq, Iran. Official trade has multiplied nearly six-fold during Putin's presidency; and the first ever Sino-Russian joint military exercises took place in August 2005.
Political Geography:
Russia, China, Iraq, Iran, Taiwan, Beijing, Soviet Union, Chechnya, and Moscow

4858. Growing Links in Energy and Geopolitics: China and the Middle East

Author:
Mehmet Ogutcu and Xin Ma
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
This paper attempts to analyze the expanding energy linkages between China, one of the most dynamic major consumers, the Middle East, a leading petroleum producer, and the CIS, a core non-OPEC emerging producer, not only because they are well established oil exporting regions, but also because of their geopolitical relevance to China as key players in a possible energy corridor linking China with the Gulf at some point in the future. The paper concludes that the economics and geopolitics of energy supply for China dictate different approaches to each of these regions, with the CIS territory ensuring that its energy to be transported across the ocean where China could be vulnerable to potential maritime disruption in the event of serious international disputes, and with the Gulf offering more flexible commercial arrangements.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
China and Middle East

4859. Geopolitics of Energy: China and the Central Asia

Author:
Xin Ma and Mehmet Öğütçü
Publication Date:
10-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
Energy-deficit China and resourceful Russia/Central Asia have been engaged most intensely over the past decade in a complex relationship involving expanded oil and gas trade, cross investment, pipelines and geopolitical ambitions. Today, Central Asia represents for China both a potential market for its growing economy and a source of strategically important raw materials. It is also important for ensuring stability and security in China's restless Xinjiang- Uyghur Autonomous region on the other side of the border. The verdict is not out yet, but clearly China has made significant progress in achieving its goals vis-à-vis Central Asia, namely (i) support regional stability, (ii) obtain access to energy resources on a mutually beneficial basis, and (iii) further develop economic relations with region. The Russia factor is omnipresent and swings from confrontation to co-operation as national interests and regional politics dictate.
Topic:
Oil
Political Geography:
Russia, China, and Central Asia

4860. Stopping a nuclear arms race between America and China

Author:
Hugh White
Publication Date:
08-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
Australia's interests in a peaceful and stable Asia-Pacific region are threatened by the risk of intensifying strategic nuclear competition between the US and China. This may seem a little surprising in the post-Cold War world. We have perhaps allowed ourselves to assume a little too easily that nuclear weapons ceased to matter much in relations between major powers after the Cold War was over. We have worried much more about the risk that they will be acquired by new players – rogue states or terrorists – who might not respond to the incentives and threats that shaped nuclear strategy between major powers during the Cold War.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
United States, China, Asia, and Australia