Rising giants: Development in China and India

Can economic growth turn overpopulation from a liability to an asset? China and India tantalize investors as the “last frontiers” of emerging consumer markets; together, they hold 37 percent of the world's 5.7 billion people. Despite their many contrasts, China and India face similiar, immense development hurdles. Mired in economic stagnation and poverty, both countries undertook economic reforms that gained momentum in the 1980s. In this comparative study, IIPS Senior Research Fellow Eimon Ueda analyzes their ongoing economic liberalization efforts and prospects. Ueda comes to IIPS from the Ministry of Finance and has served at the Japanese Embassy in India.     

东亚市民社会:新兴组织与中产阶层

长期以来学界对东亚市民社会形成状况的宏观研究比较多,但是从中产阶层和社会组织视角进行的微观研究比较少.市民社会在东亚的形成受政治、经济、文化等多种因素制约,找到其中起重要作用的因素一直是一个比较大的难题.文章通过对中产阶层和社会组织的功能进行分析后指出:在东亚,决定市民社会形成的关键因素是兴起于草根社会的各种各样的具有"公共性"的社会组织,而西方学者指出的"伴随中产阶层登上社会舞台,必然形成市民社会"这一命题却不具有普适性.     

Hedging Against China: Japanese Strategy Towards A Rising Power

Debates about how states deal with rising powers have been mainly concentrated on a continuum comprising on balancing and bandwagoning strategies. While theory has principally offered realist and liberal explanations, Japanese behavior vis-à-vis China does not match with them. Japan is not powerful enough to balance against China but remains too strong to bandwagon. Accordingly, Tokyo is pursuing a mixed strategy of both containment and engagement, which may be better described as a hedging strategy against Beijing. This article analyzes which strategies states can adopt when dealing with a rising power and proposes a framework to analyze Japan’s recent policy towards China based on Kuik’s analysis. We argue that Japan’s hedging strategy towards China is consistent with how middle-power states deal with rising power.     

韩国经济国际地位快速提升的原因分析

2008年全球金融危机爆发后,相对于世界其他国家,韩国较早地实现了经济的复苏。并在后金融危机时代,成功化危为机,使其家电、汽车等优势产业迅速地扩大了全球市场份额,抢占了市场竞争点。本文将从宏观与微观的角度,研究近期韩国经济在国际上地位得以提升的原因。     

Political Trust and Distrust in Switzerland: A Normative Analysis

Abstract: Based on data from a Swiss survey study (N = 769), this research investigated individual‐level determinants of trust in political authorities from a social psychological perspective. The study demonstrates that individuals with a low level of education who feel materially at risk and politically powerlessness expressed the lowest levels of political trust. This relationship was explained with differential endorsement of normative beliefs. A mediation analysis reveals that normative perceptions of Swiss society as being threatened by immorality and growing social inequalities accounted for the effect of perceived material risk on political distrust. The rejection of a duty‐based citizenship norm (voting), in turn, mediated the impact of political powerlessness on distrust. Political orientation was unrelated to political trust. These findings illustrate the cognitive underpinnings of political alienation and suggest that perceived lack of political agency and perceived risk of social declassification are key factors in understanding political distrust.     

China and the International Human Rights Covenants

ABSTRACT

In 1966 the UN passed two International Human Rights Covenants that are among the great achievements of humankind. The covenants were adopted in five equally binding languages, one of which was Chinese. The People's Republic of China (PRC) is generally assumed to have ratified one and signed (but not ratified) the other. In 1973, however, soon after the PRC began representing China in the UN, new Chinese-language versions of each mysteriously came into existence. These are the versions one is likely to find on the UN website, and they are what the Chinese government treats as the “covenants.” The authors of this article show that these contain substantial revisions from the covenants that had been passed by the UN 1966 and subsequently ratified by at least 164 countries. The revised versions are so different, in fact, that one could well question whether the PRC actually embraced either covenant. The covenants granted rights that the revisions would later withdraw, and in at least one case the revisions recognize a right that is absent in the covenants. Based on their comparative analysis of the various versions, the question arises as to whether China is a responsible actor in the international legal order and a reliable partner when it comes to entering into agreements with other countries or acceding to international treaties. Given that China comprises over one-fifth of humanity, it also brings into question whether the principles in the covenants can claim absolute validity and anything like universal acceptance.     

Hedley Bull and International Society: Contemporary Reflections on the Korean Peninsula

The year 2010 witnessed an escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula through two military crises. The rise in tensions can be explained by neorealism as a shifting distribution of power in the region and a small state preserving its national security. The paper argues that neorealism is not sufficient to explain the patterns and routines of crisis escalation and crisis resumption on the Korean peninsula and the North East Asian region. By focusing on the causes of conflicts neorealism fails to identify the consequences of these inter-state tensions for the evolution of an anarchical society of states in the North East Asian region. The paper provides an alternative interpretation of recent inter-Korean crisis escalation and crisis resolution in the East Asian region through the work of Hedley Bull.     

中国和国际秩序——来自历史视角的观察

二战后由美国等西方国家所创立的国际制度仍是当前国际秩序的基础。长期以来,国际社会不断要求中国遵守国际秩序下的各种规则。从历史的视角观察,中国对国际秩序及自己的地位的认知发生了变化。这其中既有中国历史传统文化的因素,又受到与外界互动的影响。中国有关世界新秩序的认识过程可以分为四个阶段,每一个阶段都威胁到要彻底改变中国人曾有的对于世界的认知,同时,每个阶段似乎又都引导着中国人更好地调整自身以应对外部压力,并向新的世界观挑战。要想对建设一个真正具有吸引力的、和平稳定的国际秩序有所贡献,中国还有很多工作要做。     

中国崛起时代的东南亚华侨华人社会:变迁与挑战

本文试图回答以下几个问题:中国的崛起对东南亚区域以及当地的华侨华人社会造成哪些影响?在中国崛起的大背景之下,东南亚华侨华人社会出现了哪些变化?我们应该如何解读这些变化的学术与政策意涵?具体来说,这些问题涉及三个不同但又密切相关的主体:东南亚华侨华人社会自身,东南亚华侨华人所在国的政治、社会、经济和文化环境,中国的角度和立场。本文认为,中国的崛起及其与东南亚密切的政治、经济、文化、社会关系,成为东南亚华侨华人社会变迁重要的外在因素,并通过国内政策而内化。当今及未来的东南亚华侨华人社会既面临众多的机遇,但也不可避免地面对新的挑战。     

多元族群社会中的宗教认同:对吉隆坡一个穆斯林社区的田野研究

本文描述了吉隆坡第一座清真寺佳米寺及其周围区域伊斯兰文化的变迁过程和现状,审视了族群多元化与宗教认同的关系,分析了城市化、全球化和移民对社区的影响.历史悠久的佳米寺正由单一的马来人社区中心变为多族群临时的互动场所,其带有族群特色的伊斯兰文化发生涵化,外来移民的离散型社区成为他们融入马来社会的实体边界.在解释多元伊斯兰文化社会中的族群互动和文化共生时,应重视内附于伊斯兰教义中的团结精神,而不是多元文化主义政策的实施.     

New Perspectives on Malaysia and a Rising China: Essays Honouring Lee Poh Ping

ABSTRACT

This article introduces the feature collection titled Malaysia and China in a Changing Region: Essays in Honour of Professor Lee Poh Ping. As well as introducing the six articles in the collection, this article pays tribute to Professor Lee, who passed away in late 2016. The article links some of the key themes of Professor Lee’s research and publications to the themes of the six articles, each of which is concerned with the rise of China and the various impacts this has for Malaysia’s political economy.     

The Limits of Normative Power Europe in Asia: The Case of Human Rights in China

In recent years an increasing number of works on EU international actorness have begun to focus on notions of “normative, value-driven external policy”. However, the majority of these works tend to uncritically analyse EU foreign policy without considering its internal complexity and the existing national, supranational and intergovernmental dynamics. This paper first sheds light on these issues by proposing an original theoretical and analytical framework to study European, rather than merely EU, normative foreign policy. Secondly, this paper attempts to empirically apply such a framework in the specific case of European human rights promotion in China. What emerges is that in the case of China, and Asia more broadly, Europe appears more as a normative trap, where the interaction of EU institutions and member states originate policies not in line with the EU human rights normative basis.     

中国与印度国际竞争力的比较与解释

本文首先对中印两国经济社会总体发展状况进行了比较,认为无论从经济指标还是从社会指标考察,中国均比印度处于更高的发展阶段。对两国制造业国际竞争力的分析比较表明,中国制造业的国际竞争力总体上强于印度。对两国服务业国际竞争力的研究表明:其一,在大多数年份,印度服务业的综合国际竞争力强于中国;其二,中国服务业国际竞争力的提升主要来源于竞争优势。虽然中国服务业综合竞争力弱于印度,但实际中国服务业的竞争优势始终强于印度,只是由于中国制造业发展速度更快,才使得中国服务业的比较优势弱于印度。文章最后从劳动力素质、基础设施、政府作用、社会异质性、宗教文化、海外侨民六个方面分析了中印之间竞争力存在差异的原因。     

"金三角"毒品形势的变化与国际禁毒合作

世纪之交东南亚"金三角"毒品形势发生了重大变化,表现为毒品产区北移并扩大,毒品生产多元化、合成化,出现新的贩毒集团、贩毒通道和毒品集散地等,从而对周边国家产生了更为严重的危害.金三角次区域国家迫切需要在执法、替代发展、协调机制、资金筹措、情报交换等方面全面加强国际禁毒合作.     

中泰关系近况与泰国社会厌华情绪

中泰战略伙伴关系发展良好,这表现在双边政治、经济、文化关系的迅速发展上。但是,近几年来,在"一带一路"的大背景下,随着到泰国的中国游客和中资企业的不断增加,泰国社会舆论中出现了一股厌华情绪。本文将分析这种情绪的表现和产生这种情绪的根源,并向中泰双方决策者提出建议。     

论当前中国和平维护南海权益的国际环境

2010年以来,在美国高调介入南海地区事务以及越南推动南海问题多边化与外部化政策的影响下,东盟对南海问题的影响日趋增强,主要南海权益争端国家对中国的态度趋向强硬。南海问题的发展趋势表明,南海争端矛盾的尖锐化、问题解决机制的多边化、区域外强国介入的常态化已经成为中国和平维护南海权益不得不面对的国际环境。而美国与东盟提出的多边谈判和尽早协商通过《南海地区行为准则》的建议短期内无益于问题的解决。从容易解决的争端下手,通过双边谈判首先解决某些具体争端,逐渐消解南海问题的复杂性是中国应对当前南海问题复杂国际因素、和平维护南海权益的必要之举。