The China threat : perceptions, myths and reality

"Since the end of the Cold War, one of the most significant debates in international relations has been the question of whether the rise of China as a major economic, political and military power will be a force for stability or instability in the international system and the East Asian region. Forceful arguments have been put forward on both sides."
"This book examines perceptions of the 'China Threat', and governments' policies in response to the perceived threat in a wide range of countries, including the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, South Asia, South-East Asia and the Middle East, as well as the perceptions of the Chinese themselves. For each country current security concerns and policies, especially the policy of engagement, are examined in detail, and future prospects for relations with China are assessed. As the Bush administration in Washington increasingly focuses on China as a 'strategic competitor' and Sino-US-relations become increasingly tense, the 'China Threat' issue has come to dominate the security agenda in the Asia-Pacific region, and now poses the biggest foreign policy challenge of the twenty-first century."

Issues in Australian foreign policy : July to December 2010

Two unforseen developments impeded the Labor government’s capacity to pursue its foreign policy objectives in the period under review. Firstly, Labor’s precarious standing in the parliament tilted the government’s policy agenda in favour of issues that the Greens prioritised. Gillard addressed some of these issues, for instance by holding the parliamentary debate on Afghanistan and by pursuing Japan over whaling in the Southern Ocean, but not to the degree that the Greens demanded. Immigration was emblematic of the government’s travails. The Greens advocated an increase in the refugee intake, but the Coalition favoured the resumption of offshore processing. Just when Labor’s proposed Timorese solution was becoming a realistic possibility, the High Court’s decision devalued the entire notion of offshore processing. The only consolation for the government was that the court had reduced the options available to all political parties.

Secondly, the Wikileaks saga revealed that Rudd may no longer be — and perhaps never was — Labor’s trump card in the realm of foreign policy. American assessments of the foreign minister’s character and judgment were in parts scathing. The Obama administration, nonetheless, appeared to readily and usefully absorb his analysis of Chinese politics. Quite how revelations of Rudd’s conversations with Clinton will affect his relations with the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party is another matter. It may well be that Rudd’s influence on Chinese leaders was always wildly overestimated, but in any case it seemed likely that the foreign minister would spend some time rebuilding ties with Beijing in 2011.

A third development — which hitherto had applied more in the realm of perception than reality — similarly threatened to limit the options open to future Australian governments of all stripes: the intensifying debate over alliance management that Hugh White’s essay instigated. Judgments about what sort of region — and what sort of China — Australia will face were imprinted in issues such as the rare earths find and the AUSMIN meeting. By the end of 2010, few issues could be discussed without reference to the China factor.

Exports, Inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Regional Economic Growth in China

The relationship between exports and economic growth is strong in developing economies. Both externality effects of exports on the non-exports sector and higher marginal productivity in the exports sector in relation to the non-exports sector play an important role in promoting exports and GDP growth. The underlying theoretical model of FEDER, 1982, is used with the data on the Chinese provinces and it is shown that the economic structure, degree of openness and policy environment have a significant role in the relationship between exports and economic growth.

Foreign Direct Investment and Regional Export Performance in China

This paper investigates the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the export performance of China at the provincial level. First, it presents a theoretical discussion of the impact of FDI on foreign trade, and then an empirical study of the impact of FDI on the export performance of regions in Chin. It has been found that the impact of FDI on exports differs across three macro-regions in China. The effect is stronger in the coastal region than in the inland regions. Although FDI shows a positive and significant impact on exports from the central region, its impact on the western region is found to be insignificant.

Neoconservatism, US-China conflict, and Australia's 'great and powerful friends' dilemma

Following its time-honoured 'great and powerful friends' foreign policy tradition, Australia has been cultivating close ties simultaneously with the United States and China. Yet, as a rivalry between the two powers apparently looms large, Australia faces an acute dilemma. While the rise of China and the question of Taiwan are often cited as main causes of US-China discord, this article argues that the American neoconservative policy on China, underpinned by a belief in both military strength and moral clarity, is integral to this growing competition and is, by extension, partly responsible for the emergence of Australia's predicament. To avoid such a difficult choice, the article suggests that Australia should strive to curb the policy influence of neoconservatism both in the United States and at home by pursuing a more independent foreign policy, making clear its strategic postures on US-China relations, and helping establish a trilateral strategic forum between Australia, the United States, and China.

The rise of China and South Korea : sunshine and beyond

While China’s re-emergence at both the regional and global levels has attracted much attention, a less discernible development has been South Korea’s bid to adopt a more robust foreign policy. For the decade following the establishment of bilateral relations with the mainland in 1992, South Korea viewed China as a valuable partner that could facilitate its foreign policy goals. Although differing in ambition and capacity, in several respects—their preferred methods of resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis, their expanding trade and investment, and their scepticism about Japanese intentions—the regional perspectives of China and South Korea proved to be highly complementary. However, closer ties with China complicate Korea’s relations with the United States, whose regional leadership China is beginning to challenge. In light of the adverse impact of the rise of China on the Korea–US alliance and other developments (notably the dispute involving the Goguryeo kingdom), South Korea’s views of China have cooled. This paper traces the Korean debate about the rise of China and its implications.

A strategy taxonomy for foreign direct investment in China

Taxonomies explaining internationalisation strategy are effective in relating connected variables to the decisionmaking process and entry mode strategies of organisations. Almost no taxonomies for entry modes into China exist, where the local conditions affecting entry are significantly different to those in other countries have been developed. The taxonomy developed in this paper from research into 40 Australian companies which had successfully and unsuccessfully internationalised into China identified resource transferability and international experience as connected variables that can categorise the factors of entry choice. High levels of resource transferability lead to contracting partnerships or wholly owned foreign enterprises. Low levels led to importing or joint ventures. High levels of international experience led to wholly-owned foreign enterprises or joint ventures. Low levels led to contracting partnerships or importing. The factors that drive these decisions were developed using a framework of resource-based view constructs, supporting the application of the resource-based view to internationalisation strategy.

The dynamic relationship between real exchange rates, real interest rates and foreign exchange reserves : empirical evidence from China

This article examines the long-run and short-run relationship between China's real exchange rate, foreign exchange reserves and the real interest rate differential between China and the United States using monthly data from 1980 to 2002. Extensive testing for unit roots allowing for up to two structural breaks in the trend indicates that the variables are not integrated of the same order. Thus, the bounds testing approach to cointegration is used, which finds that there is a single long-run relationship between the three variables. In the long run the real exchange rate has a statistically significant positive effect on foreign exchange reserves. The coefficient on the real interest rate differential is also positive, but is statistically insignificant. In the short-run it is found that the relationship between the real exchange rate, real interest rate differential and foreign exchange reserves is non-monotonic.

The contribution of human capital towards economic growth in China

The major theme is the structural transformational growth of China's economy. Aggregate measures of human capital has had no effect on either provincial output levels or growth rates. When human capital has been disaggregated, vocational education is the only category of human capital which has a positive effect.

Australia-China and Stern Hu : a dint in relations or business as usual?

China’s economic growth over the last decade has been spectacular and Australia has been a beneficiary of this growth in terms of China’s demand for resources and the strength of Chinese exports. Pundits even suggest that Australia avoided the global recession as a result of this strong trade relationship. Trade relations between Australia and China resulted in China becoming Australia’s key trading partner. The arrest and charging in 2009/10 of four Rio Tinto executives (including Stern Hu the head of Rio’s operation in China) based in China raised fears of posing a strain on this vital economic relationship. Moreover China’s inability to takeover Rio Tinto and the significance and consequences of this incident are at the core of this paper. How do these events reflect the uncertainties of doing business in China or do these events demonstrate China’s sovereign right to enforce anti-corruption legislation? While China has embraced the international business community, to what extent has the arrest and imprisonment of Stern Hu changed the Australian-China trade
relations including doing business in this thriving and buoyant market?

The waterhole : using educational drama as a pedagogical tool in a foreign language class at a public primary school in Japan

This study investigates Japanese primary school students’ and teachers’ responses to educational drama as a pedagogical tool in their English language classes. Along with the participants’ responses, the applicability of educational drama as a teaching method for the Japanese teachers is also discussed. The study was conducted in Japan as ateacher-researcher using participatory action research methods. The participants of the study are three Year Six classes and their teachers in a public primary school in Japan. Educational drama is introduced as an alternative teaching and learning method to these participants who have had no experience of drama in education.

Consumer-citizens of China : the role of foreign brands in the imagined future China

This book presents a comprehensive examination of Chinese consumer behaviour and challenges the previously dichotomous interpretation of the consumption of Western and non-Western brands in China.