China’s Public Relations and Soft-power

China’s foreign strategy and foreign policy have changed tremendously. China began to build up soft-power of national culture and embark on public diplomacy, which aimed at: 1, increasingly exposing China to the world in terms of the state of affairs, policies and values, 2, creating a more objective and amicable milieu of opinions and 3, enhancing China’s international image. The author offers her personal perspectives on how to handle relations between pursuing public relations and building up national soft-power, how to advance national soft-power by public relations and the need to obviate ideological barriers.     

中国共产党的国际体系观与中国外交

国际体系是描述国际关系整体发展状况的一个概念。中国近代以来与世界的关系,就是中国与国际体系的关系,经历了一个曲折的发展过程。中国共产党自诞生之日起,就以宏大的国际视野,不断探索中国与国际体系的关系,不断深化对国际体系的认识,不断调整和修正中国与国际体系的定位和相互关系,完成了从国际体系的革命者、积极参与者、游离者,到全面参与者和建设者的角色转变,实现了中国与国际体系关系的历史性变化。中国共产党国际体系观与时俱进的创新和发展,指导着中国外交实践走上了一条中国崛起与国际体系相和谐并平稳过渡的全新之路,使中国成为国际体系负责任的参与者、建设者和贡献者。     

美国重返亚洲态势下的中日关系前瞻

美国战略重心东移亚太,经济上与中国争夺主导权,军事上围堵遏制中国,以图维持"一超"霸主地位;在此国际背景下,中国面临周边复杂形势和压力增大,处理好中日关系在整个亚太格局中尤为重要。文章分析了中日共同利益和结构性矛盾,提出了从战略上如何把握中关、中日两对矛盾。中日友好合作、战略互惠符合中国最大国家利益,以及加强中日关系须要经济互联、政治互信、民间交往、地方外事、防卫互动、立足内政等观点。     

拜登政府的全球气候变化领导政策与中国应对

美国的气候治理政策长期呈现周期性变化特点。围绕气候问题,拜登政府强调引领清洁能源革命和重回气候治理,重视国内清洁能源发展、气候议题科学化塑造、气候治理多边主义,希望在继承奥巴马政府时期气候政策的基础上,全面提升美国的气候治理领导力。在国内,拜登政府欲依托科技创新、刺激需求、投资基础设施等措施使清洁能源融入美国经济进程;在气候外交方面,美国将推动相关问题在国家安全和外交事务中的主流化。拜登政府设计了“团结应对策略”,将盟友、峰会外交、经贸合作、对外援助和投资、技术标准、区域合作等内容融入其中,并突出气候变化与安全、人权的相关性。在对华气候政策方面,拜登政府将对中国实施限制性气候合作策略。虽然中美合作有助于实现《巴黎协定》的“2摄氏度”目标,也有助于全球低碳经济良性发展,但在气候治理领导权、全球低碳标准领域,中、美两国仍存在竞争。     

THE DILEMMAS OF A CIVILIAN POLITICIAN IN TIME OF WAR: ZHOU FOHAI AND THE FIRST STAGE OF THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR,JULY–DECEMBER 1937

Abstract

History’s verdict on Zhou Fohai is that he was an arch-collaborator, the éminence grise of Wang Jingwei’s government. Yet Zhou’s political career in the 1930s as a member of Chiang Kai-shek’s factional network did not suggest his later activities as a highly placed collaborator. Prior to 1938, Zhou had little or no political connections to Wang Jingwei; indeed, prior to the outbreak of war he regarded Wang and his followers as bitter factional enemies. Zhou’s background, therefore, underscores the complexity and indeed contingency of collaboration in the Sino-Japanese War. This article examines three areas of Zhou’s activities in the Guomindang Party-State during the first six months of the Sino-Japanese War: his role as a Chiang Kai-shek loyalist helping to craft key policies; his involvement with developing the United Front after the Lushan Conference; and his part in efforts to seek a negotiated peace with the aim of preserving as much of China’s sovereignty as possible. The article argues that these peace efforts were not in themselves a harbinger of collaboration, but were in fact conducted within the framework of the Party-State and involved a variety of leading figures. Despite Zhou’s liaison with the communist representatives, he remained staunchly anti-communist and suspicious of their ultimate ambitions, a suspicion that only deepened with the Guomindang’s every military reverse. And in his efforts to effect peace negotiations, he faced insurmountable obstacles in Chiang’s decision to pursue the military option, in the failure of international mediation by the leading Western powers, and in Japan’s ratcheting up its demands as its army went from victory to victory. By early 1938, therefore, Zhou was profoundly pessimistic about China’s prospects in its war with Japan.     

Suicide in developing countries (3): prevention efforts

Until now, suicide prevention efforts have been limited in developing countries, although there are pockets of excellent achievement. Various universal, selective, and indicated interventions have been implemented, many of which target a different pattern of risk factors to those in developed countries. In the absence of sufficient mental health services, developing countries rely heavily on nongovernment organizations (NGOs) to provide crisis interventions for suicidal individuals, as well as proactive interventions aimed at raising community awareness and building resilience. Often these NGOs work within a social and public health framework, collaborating with others to provide nested suicide prevention programs that are responsive to local community needs. There is a clear need to develop appropriate, relevant and effective national suicide prevention plans in developing countries, since, to date, only Sri Lanka has done so. These plans should focus on a range of priority areas, specify the actions necessary to achieve positive change in these priority areas, consider the range of collaborators required to implement these actions, and structure their efforts at national, regional, and local levels. The plans should also promote the collection of accurate data on completed and attempted suicide, and should foster evaluation efforts.     

改革开放与中国在世界贸易体制内的多边外交

改革开放以来,对外贸易在我国经济和社会发展中的地位日益上升,全方位参与多边经贸外交成为我国面临的一项重大课题。本文通过分析中国在关贸总协定和世界贸易组织所代表的世界贸易体制内的参与及发挥的影响力,对如何进一步发挥中国在该领域的建设性作用进行了展望。     

The Chinese and Japanese communist parties: three decades of discord and reconciliation, 1966–1998

This article depicts a painful period in the relations between the Chinese and Japanese communist parties. Using a case study of relations between a ruling Chinese communist party and a non-ruling Japanese communist party, the article covers negotiations and communiqué between the JCP leader Miyamoto and CCP leadership in 1966 that was overruled by Mao Zedong on the issue of Soviet “revisionism” and revolutionary line for the JCP. It discusses the resulting breakdown of negotiations and CCP’s efforts to splinter the Japanese party by setting up a pro-Beijing Japanese communist group. The article analyzes the obstacles to normalization, and the reasons why the leadership of the two parties decided to compromise and reach normalization in 1998 after 30 years of acrimony.     

Imperialism and the Middle Kingdom: the Xi Jinping administration’s peripheral diplomacy with developing states

This article applies the Nexon/Wright concept of ideal-type empire to the study of China’s post-2012 peripheral relations to demonstrate that the Xi administration is engaged in a concerted imperialist policy towards its developing neighbour states. Using the Nexon/Wright framework, the article demonstrates how the establishment of a China-centric regional network structure undergirds the Xi administration’s key foreign policy concepts and how these concepts, in turn, inform China’s bilateral relations with its peripheral states. To demonstrate how China employs imperialist tactics to its pursuit of a regionally based order, the article examines China’s bilateral relations with the developing states on its periphery: Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam.     

中国公共外交与软实力建设

中国对外战略和政策出现了重大变化,即开始建设国家文化软实力,开展公共外交,以便增进外国社会公众对中国的情况、政策和价值观的理解,创造更加客观友善的舆论环境,改善中国的国际形象。本文就开展公共外交与建设国家软实力的关系,如何通过公共外交提升国家软实力,以及必须克服的思想观念障碍,提出了自己的思考。     

Reinventing the politburo: central mechanisms for policy formulation and coordination in russia and hungary

In most economies in transition in Central and Eastern Europe, the senior organs of the communist party—the Politburo, the Central Committee Secretariat, and the Central Committee apparat—played a critical role in the formulation and coordination of government policy. Government ministries served a largely instrumental role in implementing decisions that were arrived at by the party. The collapse of these structures has left a vacuum that countries have attempted to fill in various ways. In many respects, Hungary and Russia represent the opposite ends of the spectrum. After some trial and error, the Hungarians have developed a system that—although not perfect —does a reasonably effective job in vetting proposals for decision and resolving issues efficiently and effectively. At the other extreme, with the exception of the areas of defense and foreign policy, the process of intergovernmental coordination has virtually broken down within Russia. This paper chronicles the efforts of both countries to develop alternative mechanisms for policy formulation and implementation, highlights their existing strengths and weaknesses, and concludes with some observations regarding the reasons behind their relative success or failure.     

拜登政府执政后的重大国际问题笔谈

由于美国国内政治极化严重,恢复经济、控制疫情、弥合国内社会撕裂等成为拜登政府的当务之急。而且由于特朗普政府时期的一些对外政策具有一定的社会基础,美国两党在一些领域也有共识,所以在一些重大国际问题上,拜登政府的立场和政策将以延续为主、调整为辅。同时,鉴于拜登阵营的建制派背景,其在国际问题上将更注重以多边主义和国际合作的方式推进相关政策。具体而言,在亚太安全领域,拜登政府对特朗普政府政策的延续将大于变化;美欧关系将有所拉近;中美俄和美欧俄战略三角关系的调整将对美俄关系未来产生影响。拜登政府以重振美国国际领导权为重要目标,对多边主义国际秩序将产生较大影响。在全球卫生治理领域,拜登政府将努力消除特朗普政府时期外交政策的负面影响。在重返亚太区域经济一体化问题上,美国短期内不会有实质性行动。在科技产业领域,特朗普政府时期的政策基调将得到延续,中国需努力遏制双方关系恶化的势头,为自身发展营造稳定的外部环境。     

International patron-client relationships: A conceptual framework

Dependency theory has cast new light on the workings of the international political economy, and on the relations between more and less developed countries. Insofar as dependency theory aims at specifying generalsystemic constraints on the behavior of Third World states, its ability to explain/predict how particular Third World states respond to these constraints is limited. Our concern is with the foreign policy responses of the LDCs. The comparative foreign policy approach to this question has attempted to account for cross-national variation in foreign policy responses of LDCs with variation in theirdomestic features, i.e., attributes, capabilities, and regime types. Here we suggest that an understanding of the foreign policies of the LDCs can be enhanced by adding an explicitly dyadic perspective to dependency and comparative foreign policy approaches, conceptualized as a form of patron-cliency.     

中国对发展中国家外交战略六十年

为总结建国60年来的中国外交经验,本文对中国对发展中国家外交战略进行了总结与分析。改革开放前30年中国对发展中国家的外交战略主要包括:支持发展中国家的民族解放事业和建立国际新秩序的斗争;对发展中国家给予无偿经济援助;支持发展中国家的团结合作。改革开放后30年中国对发展中国家的外交战略主要包括:中国"永远站在第三世界一边",但是"千万不要当头";不搞划线外交,致力于同所有发展中国家发展友好合作关系;从单边经济援助转向互利共赢和共同发展的新型经济关系;履行国际责任,积极参与国际热点问题的解决。     

及笄与志学——中国女性主义国际关系研究

中国的女性主义国际关系研究已超过15年。该学派起始于中国学者自发的研究,但更多体现的是自觉引进西方研究成果并将其中国化的努力。女性主义国际关系研究在中国发展的过程分为三个阶段,在2006年达到高峰后进入平稳发展阶段。整体而言,这一学派生产出一系列学术成果,建立起重要的研究机构,正在缓慢平稳地前进,并已体现出自己的独特性。中国女性主义国际关系研究的创新需要立足于中国特定的时间和空间,强调实践中国特色、多轨跟进、跨界合作,在日常生活和国际关系之间建立更为密切的联系。     

Political Change and Adaptation in Yorubaland in the Nineteenth Century

This article examines the role played by strongmen in Côte d'Ivoire's post-conflict reconstruction. While many acknowledge the unhindered or even the enhanced political influence these actors often enjoy as a result of their relationship to the state in post-conflict contexts, existing debates in Côte d'Ivoire, as well as elsewhere, often remain couched in terms of the implications of these kinds of relationships. Does working with rural strongmen tied to former insurgencies enhance the authority of the central state? Or do such alliances wither state institutions capable of providing long-term political order in peripheral areas? This article downplays these questions. Instead, it examines the alliances which form between strongmen and other actors amidst conflicts over local authority during post-conflict reconstruction. It suggests that the specific configuration of these alliances matter in determining the utility of allying with local strongmen during war to peace transitions. This article examines these struggles through the case of Morou Ouattara and the local Forces Nouvelles (FN) administration in Bouna, Northeastern Côte d'Ivoire.     

Czech and Slovak Relations with China: Contenders for China's Favour

This study examines the prospects for new European Union (EU) member countries in pursuing their foreign policy objectives in relations with China. Both the Czech Republic and Slovakia cherished an idea of making China an alternative economic partner. However, after 1989, China perceived these states as minor, almost unimportant partners, regardless of their efforts. Their profile was raised by EU accession but there was little change in their strength in terms of bilateral relations with China. The article investigates the failures and partial successes of the Czech and Slovak relationships with China, comparing their different approaches to the balance between focusing on political and human rights issues and the pursuit of economic and business interests.     

Challenging Global Neoliberalism? The global political economy of China's capital controls

This article engages with critical ipe scholars who have examined the rise of China and its impact on the neoliberal world order by analysing whether China poses a challenge to the neoliberal norm of free movement of capital. We argue that China's capital control regime is marked by a contradiction between its domestic social relations of production and its global geo-economic ambitions. On one hand, the key raison d'être of China's capital controls is to protect and consolidate an investment-led accumulation regime that redistributes income and wealth from Chinese workers to its state-owned enterprise sector. Dismantling these controls would result in changing social relations of production that would not necessarily benefit Chinese industrial and financial capital. On the other hand, China's accumulation regime has found itself increasingly constrained by the dynamics of US monetary hegemony, making the contestation of US structural monetary power a key global geo-economic ambition of China's ruling elites. In this regard, China would have to challenge the dominance of the US dollar by promoting the international role of the renminbi and developing liquid financial markets. Since it would have to abolish its capital controls in order to achieve this, there is a plain contradiction between its domestic and global objectives. A good understanding of this contradiction is necessary in order to be able to assess whether China will be capable of challenging the neoliberal world order in general and the norm of free movement of capital in particular.     

Financial mobilization and allocation: The South Korean case

There are two major competing views on how financial resources may best be mobilized and allocated to accelerate economic growth of developing countries. One emphasizes the importance of competitive financial markets; the other stresses the role of the developmental state. This study examines one of the world’s fastest-growing economies during the past few decades, that of South Korea, focusing on its experience with financial resources mobilization and allocation. It finds that a state-centered approach provides a better, albeit imperfect, account of the South Korean postwar experience, in which the state has assiduously influenced the access to, and cost, of, available financial resources, going far beyond merely “getting the prices right.” Lawrence Chang is assistant professor of political science at Kean College of New Jersey. His publications include articles on Chinese politics inChina Spring and the political economy of East Asian development inMid-American Journal of Politics. He is currently completing a study of direct foreign investment in the People’s Republic of China.     

Conformism and Agency: Model Young Communists and the Komsomol Press in the Later Khrushchev Years, 1961–1964

This essay examines newspaper narratives depicting model youth in Komsomol'skaya Pravda in the early 1960s in order to cast light on the Party-state's efforts in the Khrushchev years to use the press as a means of re-energising the drive to forge model communist citizens. In contrast to most studies of Soviet media, this study offers a glimpse of the reception of official signals, by drawing on sociological studies that Komsomol'skaya Pravda conducted of its readers in the early 1960s. Throughout, the paper explores recent scholarly discussions of resistance, conformism and agency in the Soviet context.