bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Official/ Unofficial: Information Management and Social Association
Authors: Hearn Kay
Published: February 2019

This paper explores the debates around civil society and corporatism as ways of understanding changes in social association, including non-governmental organisations and protest groups, and information management in relation to the development of the Internet. Both concepts have been used to examine the changes that have taken place since the implementation of the Open Door Policy and more recently the development of the Internet, and have shed light on the way in which new forms of social association operate, and on their relationship to the government. However, both concepts tend to be deterministic and reductionist positions. Instead, I use a centre-margin analysis based on medium theory to explore the relationship between the state and society as a way of shedding light on the interaction between the government and NGOs and on how the state manages the flow of information in order to shape public discourse.
Taiwan's Ethnicities and their Representation on the Internet
Authors: Damm Jens
Published: February 2019

This paper examines various Web applications of the four “officially” recognized ethnicities in Taiwan and aims to identify the links between information and communication technologies (ICTs), ethnic identities and issues related to Taiwanization and its contestation. To give some background, the paper introduces Taiwan's more recent multiculturalist policies, which should be seen as part of the broader Taiwanization and nation-building project. These multiculturalist/ ethnicity-related policies, directed toward the wider population as well as the specific ethnicities, are presented on the Internet by various government organizations and government-supported organizations. This paper also employs a discursive analysis of popular websites and blogs to examine the roles played by various societal and civic actors (ranging from NGOs to individuals) within Taiwan's ethnicity discourse.
Buddhist Revival under State Watch
Authors: Laliberté André
Published: February 2019

The Chinese Communist Party has shown tolerance, if not direct support, for the growth of Buddhism over the last few decades. Three explanations for this lenient attitude are explored in this article. The flourishing of Buddhism is encouraged by the state less for its propaganda value in foreign affairs than for its potential to lure tourists who will, in turn, represent a source of revenue for local governments. Buddhist institutions are also establishing their track record in the management of philanthropic activities in impoverished area where local governments lack the resources to offer specific social services. Finally, the development of such activities has contributed to enhance cooperation between China and Taiwan, whose governments have a vested interest in the improvement of relations across the Strait. The article concludes that the growth of Buddhism in China results from the initiatives of Buddhists themselves, and the government supports this growth because it serves local politics well.
The Cultural Politics of Ethnic Identity in Xishuangbanna, China: Tea and Rubber as “Cash Crops” and “Commodities”
Authors: Sturgeon Janet C.
Published: February 2019

In 2003, the poverty alleviation bureau in Xishuangbanna, China, introduced tea and rubber as cash crops to raise the incomes of ethnic-minority farmers who were thought to be backward and unfamiliar with markets. Using Marx's commodity fetish and Polly Hill's critique of “cash crops”, this paper analyses the cultural politics of ethnicity for Akha and Dai farmers in relation to tea and rubber. When the prefecture government introduces “cash crops”, the state retains its authority as the dispenser of knowledge, crops and modernity. When tea and rubber become commodities, however, some of the symbolic value of the commodity seems to stick to farmers, making rubber farmers “modern” and tea farmers “ethnic” in new ways. Through rising incomes and enhanced identities, Akha and Dai farmers unsettle stereotypes of themselves as “backward”. As a result of income levels matching those of urban middle-class residents, rubber farmers even challenge the prevalent social hierarchy.
Beijing's Policies for Managing Han and Ethnic-Minority Chinese Communities Abroad
Authors: To James
Published: February 2019

The overseas Chinese (OC) form a vast network of powerful interest groups and important political actors capable of shaping the future of China from abroad by transmitting values back to their ancestral homeland (Tu 1991). While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) welcomes and actively seeks to foster relations with the OC in order to advance China's national interests, some cohorts may be hostile to the regime. In accordance with their distinct demographic and ethnic profiles, the CCP's qiaowu ([Formula: see text], OC affairs) infrastructure serves to entice, co-opt, or isolate various OC groupings. This article summarises the policies for managing different subsets of OC over the past three decades, and argues that through qiaowu, the CCP has successfully unified cooperative groups for China's benefit, while preventing discordant ones from eroding its grip on power.
Bringing the Low-Carbon Agenda to China: A Study in Transnational Policy Diffusion
Authors: Hofem Andreas , Heilmann Sebastian
Published: February 2019

This study traces the transnational interactions that contributed to introducing the low-carbon economy agenda into Chinese policymaking. A microprocessual two-level analysis (outside-in as well as inside-access) is employed to analyse transnational and domestic exchanges. The study provides evidence that low-carbon agenda-setting – introduced by transnational actors, backed by foreign funding, promoted by policy entrepreneurs from domestic research institutes, propelled by top-level attention, but only gradually and cautiously adopted by the government bureaucracy – can be considered a case of effective transnational diffusion based on converging perceptions of novel policy challenges and options. Opinion leaders and policy-brokers from the government-linked scientific community functioned as effective access points to the Chinese government's policy agenda.
The Dilemma of Stability Preservation in China
Authors: Feng Chongyi
Published: February 2019

Stability preservation ([Formula: see text], weiwen) has been a core policy of the Chinese communist government for the last two decades. China is the only major country in the contemporary world to have set up stability preservation offices at all levels of government alongside the normal administrative institutions for social control. These offices are mainly staffed by the existing personnel of the security apparatus, who in turn exercise control over people and the propaganda apparatus, who exercise control over information. The consequences of the stability preservation policy and the “system of stability preservation” ([Formula: see text], weiwen tizhi) are widely reported in the media, but the academic community is still in the initial stages of understanding the process of this unique phenomenon in China (Sandby-Thomas 2011; Shambaugh 2000; Social Development Research Group 2010; Sun 2009; Yu 2009). Why has the Chinese government pursued this policy? Is stability preservation in China a conventional issue of “law and order”? Are the policy and institutions of stability preservation effective in providing social and political stability? What are the implications of these special arrangements for China and the Chinese communist regime in the long run?
Preserving Stability and Rights Protection: Conflict or Coherence?
Authors: Feng Chongyi
Published: February 2019

The creation of a new administrative institution known as the “Stability Preservation Office” at the central level, which is overseen by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and has branches at every local level, from streets and townships to enterprises, and has extraordinary powers to override other regular institutions and branches of government, is a clear indication that the Chinese government's efforts to preserve stability are not limited to the conventional business of crime control or public security. This paper traces the origin of the discourse and practice of preserving stability and the rights defence movement in China, investigating the interplay or interaction between the two. It examines the end and the means of stability preservation, explores whether the measures taken by the government to preserve stability or the rights protection actions taken by citizens are the root cause of social unrest, and whether the suppression of discontent or the improvement of human rights and social justice is the better way to achieve social stability in contemporary China. It contributes to our understanding of emerging state-society relations and the latest social and political trends in China.
Fragmented Authoritarianism and Protest Channels: A Case Study of Resistance to Privatizing a Hospital
Authors: Li Yao
Published: February 2019

Can citizens in an authoritarian country like China influence policy implementation? Two types of scholarship indicate ways that they can: The first proposes that policy implementation is carried out through a fragmented authoritarian system that requires consultation and cooperation among various government units, and this system is amenable to pressure from outside groups. The second examines institutional channels designed to handle grievances and bridge communication between citizens and the authorities. In this paper, I emphasize a link between these two bodies of scholarship, showing how protest channels are connected to the fragmented authoritarian system and how the imperative to maintain social stability leads higher-level authorities to resolve departmental conflicts in favour of protesters. I do this by examining a struggle against the privatization of a hospital in North China, a case that illustrates how protesters successfully employed both the petition system and the opportunities offered by the fragmented authoritarian system to develop powerful alliances, to peacefully pressure top local authorities to intervene and to overcome opposition in the local government, leading to finalizing the municipalization of the hospital.
Local Autonomy in Action: Beijing's Hong Kong and Macau Policies
Authors: Chou Bill
Published: February 2019

This paper investigates how Beijing governs its two special administrative regions (SARs) of Hong Kong and Macau through leverages on their local autonomy. First, a conceptual analysis of local autonomy will be provided. Local autonomy is more than a zero-sum game between the central and local authorities over how much power should be granted or taken from the local authorities; it also concerns the space for cultural expression and the use of local customs in public administration. Second, the degree of local autonomy in Hong Kong and Macau will be critically examined. On paper, both SAR governments are able to freely make decisions on a wide range of policies. In practice, however, Beijing has the absolute authority to override the decisions of Hong Kong and Macau. It is argued that the autonomy in cultural expression can compensate for the institutional constraints on the two SARs’ decision-making power and is thus able to alleviate public discontent – as long as the constraints do not conflict with the people's core values and ways of life.
Online Consultation and Citizen Feedback in Chinese Policymaking
Authors: Balla Steven J. , Liao Zhou
Published: February 2019

In recent years, the Chinese government has increasingly utilised online consultation as a means of providing citizens with opportunities to offer feedback on draft laws and regulations. As little is known about the operation of online consultation, this article analyses the content of citizen feedback submitted on a revision to China's health system proposed by the National Development and Reform Commission. Citizen engagement with the political and substantive issues under consideration is crucial if online consultation is to impact government decision-making and enhance the performance of laws and regulations. This paper's main findings are that it was common for comments to address substantive issues in great depth, as well as express negative assessments of government decisions. This suggests that online consultation holds promise as an instrument of governance reform, which the Chinese Communist Party has embraced as a means of cultivating popular support.
Altering the Rules: Chinese Homeowners’ Participation in Policymaking
Authors: Jiang Yihong
Published: February 2019

This study looks at Chinese homeowners’ participation in policymaking. Drawing on evidence from Guangzhou and Beijing, it shows that various organised homeowner activists have moved upstream in the policy process and have begun to push beyond policy implementation into the domain of agenda setting and “rule-making”. These advocates display rights-conscious patterns of behaviour that are closer to that of interest or lobby groups than to the typical repertoire of Chinese contentious citizens. The study suggests that this kind of political participation is on the rise amongst Chinese homeowner activists. This result complements and extends other recent findings that suggest the Chinese policy process is gradually opening up. Such a trend could have significant implications and calls for more research in different domains of state-society relations.
The Political Contexts of Religious Exchanges: A Study on Chinese Protestants’ International Relations
Authors: Brandner Tobias
Published: February 2019

This article surveys the complex ecumenical, missionary and international church relations of Chinese Protestant Christians. It argues that the inter-church relations to other parts of Asia are overshadowed by relations to Christians in the West, thus reflecting a political preoccupation with relationships to the West. This is evidenced by an analysis of worldwide and Asian ecumenism as well as bilateral church and missionary relationships. The dominance of contacts with the West not only contradicts the idea of a multipolar world and increased South-South contacts, it also stands in contrast to the reality of growing and increasingly important Christianity in Asia. Methodologically, this paper analyses different kinds of international relations (multilateral and bilateral, inter-church and missionary) and develops a typology of different inter-church and inter-state relations to assess international church relations in Asia today. The typology shows how China's international church relations support its political relationships with its neighbours and beyond.
Refurbishing State Capitalism: A Policy Analysis of Efforts to Rebalance China's Political Economy
Authors: McNally Christopher A.
Published: February 2019

This article provides an analysis of policy initiatives aimed at rebalancing China's political economy, especially those contained in the twelfth Five-Year Plan and other recent pronouncements. The objective is to generate a conceptual examination of these policy measures, thereby highlighting their basic intent and purpose. The analysis shows that the Chinese leadership intends to pursue policies that can centralize, standardize and regulate the political economy under continued state guidance. Due to the considerable political obstacles that Chinese policymakers face in rebalancing the political economy, a more state-centric approach is seen as necessary. China is therefore pursuing a policy package of refurbishing state capitalism. While a degree of liberalization is likely to be undertaken, the major thrust is one of revamping, restructuring and, ultimately, strengthening state control and guidance over the political economy.
Place-based and Place-bound Realities: A Chinese Firm's Embeddedness in Tanzania
Authors: Men Tanny
Published: February 2019

The paper presents a single case study of how one Chinese firm operates in Dar es Salaam and how the firm's embeddedness and unique managerial style in the local context affect local benefits for Tanzanian employees. The results demonstrate the need to fill a gap in the knowledge about Chinese economic activities in Africa, particularly in relation to the cultural constructs present in manager-employee interactions. The findings paint a picture of a firm that intends to localize its business strategies and engage a local labour force, but similarly reveals the inherent cultural, behavioural and social norms of Chinese management, which may create organizational challenges and power differentials in the workplace.
Survey of Experts on Climate Change Awareness and Public Participation in China
Authors: Kuhn Berthold , Zhang Yangyong
Published: February 2019

Climate protection issues are receiving more attention in China. Responding to this survey, 133 environmental and climate protection experts indicated that the government is a key factor in raising awareness of climate protection in China. Experts participating in the survey also referred to the role of the media – in particular social media – NGOs and educational institutions in spreading climate protection awareness. Additionally, interviews were carried out with 40 of the experts, who were grouped into different categories to discover whether there were any striking differences of opinion between experts of different backgrounds. Their assessments revealed few statistically relevant differences, though some are worth noting: Chinese researchers, project managers and representatives of NGOs were more positive than international experts regarding the impact of the Rio+20 conference on climate change discourse in China. Also, the youngest experts with the least international experience evaluated the potential of green volunteer work highest.
The Impact of Changing Incentives in China on International Cooperation in Social Science Research on China
Authors: Fischer Doris
Published: February 2019

Over the past three decades, China's fast economic development has induced considerable changes in China's university and research institution landscape, research financing and academic career incentives. This paper argues that these changes have affected the motivation and the ways in which Chinese scholars engage in international research cooperation. Most recently it has been observed that strong pressures on scholars and scientists – especially at leading academic institutions – to excel in international publications while simultaneously fulfilling their obligation to generate income for their institutions can lead to a dilemma with regard to international research cooperation: Those institutions and scholars most interesting for foreign scholars to cooperate with may be the ones with the least amount of both incentive and time to enter into serious cooperation. This article invites us to reflect on the implications of these changes in the incentive structure for cooperation in social science research on China.
Chinese Adaptations: African Agency, Fragmented Community and Social Capital Creation in Ghana
Authors: Lam Katy N.
Published: February 2019

Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Ghana perceive themselves as vulnerable, as regularly they encounter problems and their businesses fail. The adaption experiences of Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa, especially non-traders, remain largely unstudied. By looking at the interactions of newly arrived and established Chinese migrants with institutional actors, partners, local employees and other Chinese in Ghana, this paper shows the multiple dimensions of how Chinese entrepreneurs’ migration adaptation evolves, and how they create social capital to develop their businesses in Ghana. From the Chinese perspective, established entrepreneurs condemn the recent numerous “new” Chinese in Ghana as part of the root cause of problems, on account of their “poor quality and bad behaviour”; by comparison, the newly arrived Chinese attribute their challenges to deficiencies in the local people and institutions of the host country. The negative experiences of Chinese entrepreneurs in Ghana provide further evidence for, not only African, but also local Chinese agency from below, and suggest that the rising Chinese presence does not necessarily improve the social status of Chinese entrepreneurs or create a stronger, more unified Chinese community on the continent.
Non-Interference 2.0: China's Evolving Foreign Policy towards a Changing Africa
Authors: Aidoo Richard , Hess Steve
Published: February 2019

China's non-interference policy has come under scrutiny in regards to its growing and deepening relations in Africa. The policy has come to represent an about-face from conditional assistance and investment associated with the Washington Consensus. Although often well received in much of the global South, this policy has drawn a lot of criticism from the West and others. These commentators have perceived non-interference as an opportunistic and often inconsistent instrument for enabling China's increasing access to African resources and markets. This article suggests that despite some consistent support for the rhetoric of non-interference, China's implementation of the policy has become increasingly varied and contextualized in reaction to Africa's ever-more diversified political and economic landscape since the early 2000s.
From Poisonous Weeds to Endangered Species: Shenghuo TV, Media Ecology and Stability Maintenance
Authors: Sun Wanning
Published: February 2019

The most common framework through which we understand media communication and political/social stability in China is that of hegemony and control. This characterization may have served us well in documenting how the mandate for stability often results in censorship, regulation and restriction, but it has two major faults: First, the focus on crackdowns, bans and censorship usually tells us something about what the party-state does not like, but does not convey much about what it does like. Second, it often obscures the routine ways the party-state and the market work together to shore up ideological domination and maintain stability. In this analysis of the policies, economics and content of a broad range of television programmes, I suggest that we look at the media and communication as an ideological-ecological system in order to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between China's media practices and its ongoing objectives.
Regulation with Chinese Characteristics: Deciphering Banking Regulation in China
Authors: Yazar Orhan H.
Published: February 2019

The regulatory agency responsible for prudential supervision of the banks in China, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), is not an independent authority. The agency's regulatory actions are constrained by the central government, which has to balance the prudential and non-prudential consequences of bank regulation for its political survival. The conditions and limits of the government's influence on the CBRC is analysed through an investigation of three regulatory cases. The conclusion is that the CBRC's regulatory actions are determined by the relative importance of prudential outcomes for the government's policy objectives.
Overthrowing the First Mountain: Chinese Student-Migrants and the Geography of Power
Authors: Kajanus Anni
Published: February 2019

This article uses Mahler and Pessar's (2001, 2006) model of “geography of power” to interrogate how the general dynamic of Chinese student migration generates a variety of experiences at the individual level. Each Chinese student-migrant embarks on their journey from a different position vis-à-vis the flows and interconnections of the international education market. Some of them set out to achieve concrete goals, while others are motivated by a more intangible mission to become cosmopolitan subjects. As they move around, their shifting position in the hierarchies of nationality, class, gender, and generation influences their decision-making and their experiences. These power systems function simultaneously on multiple geographical scales, exemplified by the contradictory ways gender operates in the family, education, work, and marriage. To further develop the connection this model makes between personal characteristics, cognitive processes, and various power systems, I draw attention to the politics of ordinary affects.
“Creating a Home away from Home”: Chinese Undergraduate Student Enclaves in US Higher Education
Authors: Chen Yajing , Ross Heidi
Published: February 2019

This paper draws on the theory of ethnic enclaves to study Chinese international student communities and their role in constructing Chinese undergraduate student experiences on US campuses. Enclave theory has primarily been used by sociologists to study immigrant and diaspora populations, but it can also provide an important analytical tool for scholars examining the internationalisation of student populations in higher-education settings. Student interviews and participant observation at a representative research-intensive, doctoral-granting institution in the American Midwest indicate that institutional and media characterisations of Chinese international student communities as closed and segregated are far too simplistic. Chinese student enclaves provide their members with crucial information, support, and social spaces that help them adapt to – and in turn change – their host institutions. Chinese students are active participants in and creators of campus cultures that are often invisible to university administrators, faculty, and peers.
Healthcare-Seeking Practices of African and Rural-to-Urban Migrants in Guangzhou
Authors: Bork-Hüffer Tabea
Published: February 2019

Taking the examples of Chinese rural-to-urban migrant and African migrant businesspeople in Guangzhou, this article inquires into the commonalities and differences in the health status and healthcare-seeking practices of both groups. While both populations of migrants are diverse and heterogeneous, there are many commonalities with regard to the challenges they face compared to the Chinese local population. Mixed-methods research frameworks and qualitative and quantitative methods were applied. While existing publications emphasise lacking financial access to healthcare, further individual and social factors account for migrants’ healthcare choices. Their access to healthcare can be improved only by introducing insurance schemes with portable benefits, providing localised and culturally adequate health services adapted to migrants’ specific needs and health risks, and enhancing patient orientation and responsiveness by health professionals.
The Brink of Poverty: Implementation of a Social Assistance Programme in Rural China
Authors: Kuhn Lena , Brosig Stephan , Zhang Linxiu
Published: February 2019

The Rural Minimum Living Standard is an important component of social security in rural areas of China, as it provides social assistance to poor rural households. The country's size and large development heterogeneities, however, make the policy's implementation a challenging task. Using quantitative and qualitative data from rural households and administrators in five provinces, we identify the pitfalls of multi-level implementation along with the difficulty of measuring income in rural, underdeveloped areas as key sources of an implementation gap that has led to a considerable degree of misallocation of monetary transfers. Changes in the budgeting process and the distribution method might improve the anti-poverty effect of social assistance without having to carry out additional monitoring.
Urban Social Assistance in China: Transnational Diffusion and National Interpretation
Authors: Liu Tao , Sun Li
Published: February 2019

In 1999 the State Council of the People's Republic of China (PRC) introduced the Regulation on the Minimum Living Standard Scheme (MLSS, [Formula: see text] or dibao) for urban residents in China. Policy learning from different parts of the world significantly shaped the formation and expansion of the MLSS, and Chinese social policy researchers have drawn conclusions about the experiences of these multiple regions. Through expert interviews, we discovered that the Chinese social assistance scheme has been influenced by the US ideas of “social investment” and “workfare.” Furthermore, the European values of “universal entitlement” and “social citizenship” have also been internalised by the Chinese actors behind the scheme. In addition, Hong Kong's social assistance scheme has inspired Chinese policymakers to explore a model consisting of various categories that target the country's enormous special welfare needs. Thus, scholars and policymakers from China have used values and ideas outside China to create a hybrid model of social assistance that is characterised by broad coverage, a low benefit level, and a highly provincial administrative structure.
Marginalisation at China's Multi-Ethnic Frontier: The Mongols of Henan Mongolian Autonomous County in Qinghai Province
Authors: Wallenböck Ute
Published: February 2019

China consists of a mosaic of many territorial ethnic groups whose historic homelands have been incorporated into the modern Chinese state, a process by which the respective populations transformed from a “sovereign or semi-sovereign people” (Bulag 2002: 9) on China's periphery into “minority nationalities” ([Formula: see text], shaoshu minzu). In 1950 Mao Zedong initiated the “Ethnic Classification Project” whose effect has been the marginalisation of the minority nationalities. In this paper, I explore the marginalisation of the Mongol population of contemporary Henan Mongolian Autonomous County within the Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southeastern Qinghai Province. By seeking to understand how Henan Mongols deal with their socio-political and demographic marginal status, the aim of this article is to shed light on how they utilise their marginal position, and how they centralise themselves as an independent party interacting with the civilising missions of China and Tibet.
Antipiracy and Unusual Coalitions in the Indian Ocean Region: China's Changing Role and Confidence Building with India
Authors: Gippner Olivia
Published: February 2019

Piracy and threats from non-state actors in the Gulf of Aden have triggered states to cooperate in securing waterways and the sea lines of communication, a development that is fundamentally transforming the region's maritime security environment. As a result, not only has this region's strategic importance been reaffirmed, but it has also gained tremendous importance through the presence of several actors, especially China and India. Since 2008, these two countries have been involved in larger global actions against piracy, which has led to increasing contact between their navies and more exposure of their capabilities. Will the broader Indian Ocean region emerge as an area of cooperation or competition between China and India? Drawing on interviews carried out with Chinese and European experts from 2012 to 2015, this article explores the reasons for and instruments of cooperation in antipiracy and the degree to which China uses antipiracy efforts as confidence-building measures.
Curriculum Reform and the Teaching of History in High Schools during the Ma Ying-jeou Presidency
Authors: Stolojan Vladimir
Published: February 2019

The last two years of Ma Ying-jeou's (Ma Yingjiu) presidency saw the eruption of a controversy surrounding proposed revisions to the high school history curriculum. Although not the first time that the subject of history has exacerbated the tensions between holders of a China-centred view of Taiwan's history and those favouring a more Taiwan-centred approach, this crisis, which took place mainly between 2014 and 2015, was undoubtedly the fiercest witnessed by the Taiwanese society in the sphere of educational issues. By putting the 2014–2015 dispute into perspective through a review of the different attempts made by the pro-Taiwan independence Chen Shui-bian (Chen Shuibian) and the pro-unification Ma Ying-jeou governments to edit the history curriculum, this article will underline the specificities of this particular controversy. This contribution will, therefore, help to shed new light not only on the perception of Taiwan's history promoted by the Ma administration, but also the policy-making process which characterised the last years of Ma's presidency.
Getting the Numbers Right on China's Actual Overseas Investment: The Case of the Netherlands
Authors: De Jong Piter , Greeven Mark J. , Ebbers Haico
Published: February 2019

This study assesses the quality of Chinese outbound FDI data. In our case study of the Netherlands, we checked the data quality of the often-used Orbis/Amadeus database and its data source, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (Kamer van Koophandel, KVK), which has one of the oldest and, arguably, one of the better databases within Europe. We analysed Chinese investments in the Netherlands and show that six adjustments are necessary to clean up the data. We also show that not making these adjustments can significantly impact the outcome of research. The cleaned-up data show that sampled Chinese firms are young, small, and private.
Repository Africa in the Evolving “Chinese Century”: The Uneven Sino-Nigerian Water Conservation Partnership
Authors: Adeniran Adebusuyi Isaac
Published: February 2019

Although extant reconstruction of the limits of international development practice has been implicated in the budding involvement of China in Africa, debates on China's actual intents and prospects have continued to rage. Engaging an exploratory design and a political-ecology approach, which affirms the significance of human factors in contextualising, structuring, and contesting the natural world, this study assesses specific short-term and long-term outcomes of China's Gansu-modelled water conservation project in Kano, Nigeria. The shared ecological interface between China and Nigeria has facilitated transfer of relevant technology to the Guinea and Sahel regions in Northern Nigeria. Chinese involvement in the Nigerian water/agricultural sector has resulted in improved indigenous farmers’ skills, yields, and incomes. Sustaining the trend of ongoing intervention would imply a significant boost to Nigeria's drive towards self-reliance, though a long-term cleavage towards such Chinese interventions might eventually imply neo-dependency.
Regionalism, Identity, and Hydropower Dams: The Chinese-Built Lower Sesan 2 Dam in Cambodia
Authors: Hensengerth Oliver
Published: February 2019

The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) has been styled as a natural region drawn together by the Mekong River. However, the literature on regional identity has argued that regions are socially constructed phenomena. River basins in particular are historically evolved constructs of specific political and social relations. Drawing on concepts of regional identity and on the literature examining the links between culture and water, the article argues that the actors driving the GMS have exacerbated social tensions through hydropower programmes, thus failing to establish social coherence. These programmes focus on energy production for national economic growth and economic integration between GMS countries, but they ignore the need to govern water resources for the benefit of local communities, many of which are made up of ethnic minorities with specific cultural attachments to the river. This produces tensions around the type of development that takes place in the GMS, leading to value fragmentation rather than value convergence. The article explores these issues by focusing on the Chinese-built Lower Sesan 2 Dam in Cambodia.
China Came, China Built, China Left?: The Sarawakian Experience with Chinese Dam Building
Authors: Fam Shun Deng
Published: February 2019

This paper uses a political ecology approach to unpack the experience of local governments and displaced communities in Sarawak, Malaysia, with Chinese dam construction at the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam. Data for the study was collected over 32 months from 2014 to 2016. The field site offered a unique insight into how recipient countries of aid are also often at the receiving end of domestic politics of donor countries. The paper finds that Chinese and Australian enterprises involved in the dam construction and resettlement of indigenous communities displayed different understandings with regards to social and environmental safeguards, resulting in a dysfunctional handover of the project from Australian to Chinese leadership. Consequently, indigenous communities were dispossessed from their land, affecting their ability to successfully reconstruct their livelihoods, with their attempts to do so causing further damage to the environment around the reservoir of the dam.
The Porn Bill in Indonesia: A Threat to Pluralism?
Authors: Hoepfner Maren
Published: February 2019

On 30 October 2008 Indonesia's parliament passed a controversial pornography bill after following years of heavy debate. According to the wording of the law, pornography means not only the production and distribution of pornographic material, but also behaviour that violates moral ethics in the community or incites sexual exploitation. This vague definition led to massive protests by human and women's rights groups, some provinces, and supporters of the state's pluralism. The opponents of the law claim that women's rights and the traditions of the non-Muslim minority, as well as the pluralism and the unity of the country, are endangered. Furthermore, they worry that conservative Islam will grow in importance. The enduring dispute on the porn bill mirrors a fundamental conflict: the impacts of Islam on policy in pluralistic communities. This article illustrates the debate on the pornography bill and at the same time considers the question of to what extent pluralism in Indonesia is threatened and restricted by Islamism.
Piracy in Southeast Asia – What is behind the Decline in Piracy?
Authors: Bünte Marco
Published: February 2019

Recent developments in action to combat sea piracy in Southeast Asian waters coincide with declining attack rates. This article analyses recent figures and tries to look behind the changes.
Reliable Kingdom? The USA, Thailand, and the Logic of Bandwagoning
Authors: Wagener Martin
Published: February 2019

As the greatest military power in the Asia-Pacific, the U.S. depends on the cooperation of its allies. In the past, Washington has had to recognize that support is not always forthcoming. Using the example of relations between the U.S. and Thailand, this article tries to establish how the reliability of an ally can be assessed. For this purpose, the options of military access for American forces are first analyzed. Subsequently, the actions of the kingdom are explained from a theoretical point of view: Is Bangkok following a policy of bandwagoning vis-à-vis Washington? Finally, against this background, the possible behaviour of Thailand during a crisis in the Taiwan Strait is discussed: How reliable will the American ally be when it counts?
The Re-election of the Indonesian President: Reasons and Background
Authors: Ziegenhain Patrick
Published: February 2019

Incumbent president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) was reelected as Indonesian president in the elections on 8 July 2009 with over 60 per cent of the votes. The reasons for the victory were his relatively successful economic policies, his efforts in the fight against corruption, and the poor quality of his political opponents. The retired general made a military career under the authoritarian New Order and then became a politician after democratisation started in 1998. In 2004, he was elected president with the support of Islamic parties, which he then included in his government. As a person close to the military, SBY avoided reducing the privileges of the Armed Forces and thus democratic deepening has been stalled. However, there are good chances that economic progress and political stability will prevail during his second term.
Unity-in-Diversity?: Regional Identity-building in Southeast Asia
Authors: Jönsson Kristina
Published: February 2019

The aim of this paper is to discuss the issue of regional integration and regional identity-building in Southeast Asia. The idea is to problematise the quest for a regional identity by relating the efforts of integration to the issues of multi-ethnicity, national identity-building and multicultural societies in times of globalisation. The article consists of three broad themes intending to capture the complexity of regional identity-building: regionalism and regional cooperation; tensions by diversity; and dilemmas of regional identity-building in multi-ethnic societies illustrated by Laos and Burma/ Myanmar. This analysis is explorative in character and attempts to combine different bodies of literature in order to better understand some of the contradictory processes related to regional identity-building in Southeast Asia. A tentative conclusion is that without an accommodating, inclusive and pluralistic society, the creation of a common regional identity will remain an elitist political project.
Still in the “Drivers’ Seat”, but for how Long? ASEAN's Capacity for Leadership in East-Asian International Relations
Authors: Jones Lee
Published: February 2019

This paper assesses the capacity of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to moderate great-power relations in East Asia, especially in light of recent regional developments that have challenged ASEAN's traditional modus operandi and its corporate cohesion. The first of three sections argues that capacity emerges not from institutional arrangements but rather the social relationships that give rise to particular institutions, and therefore can only be understood relationally. A number of key relationships are highlighted and explored in the rest of the paper. First, the relationships among regional great powers, which are considered in section two. Second, the relationships among ASEAN states, and between ASEAN states and their own societies, which are considered in section three. The paper's basic argument is that the first set of relationships is essentially what gives ASEAN its capacity to play a wider regional role. However, it also sets profound constraints for what this role can involve in practical terms. The second set of relationships also creates serious and deep constraints that are often not well understood. However, despite the serious limitations on ASEAN's leadership role, unless the first set of relationships change, this role is likely to continue, regardless of how frustrating or ineffectual it might be.
Debating the Conduct and Nature of Malaysian Politics: Communalism and New Media Post-March 2008
Authors: Liow Joseph Chinyong , Pasuni Afif
Published: February 2019

The results of Malaysia's general election held on 8 March 2008 was nothing short of monumental. By winning five state legislatures and denying the incumbent governing coalition its hitherto routine two-thirds parliamentary majority, the performance of the opposition, swayed by the contribution of the new media, raised hopes that Malaysian politics had turned a corner. Following the elections, the popular discursive terrain in Malaysia was awash with talk of a “new politics” that had emerged, and that transcended the traditional narratives of race, religion, and communalism. The purpose of this paper is to examine the veracity of these claims in relation to the nature and conduct of politics in Malaysia. It argues that, three years after the 2008 elections, the communal narrative remains as forceful a factor in Malaysian politics despite the presence of a multi-ethnic opposition coalition and the hope engendered by the emergence of the new media as an equalizing factor that has eroded the incumbent's traditional hegemonic control over information.
A Comparative Study of State-Led Development in Myanmar (1988–2010) and Suharto's Indonesia: An Approach from the Developmental State Theory
Authors: Tun Sai Khaing Myo
Published: February 2019

This article explores the institutionalization of state-led development in Myanmar after 1988 in comparison with Suharto's Indonesia. The analysis centres on the characteristics and theory of developmental states that emerged from the studies of East Asian countries like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. In Southeast Asia, Suharto's Indonesia was perceived as a successful case and was studied by scholars in line with the characteristics of the developmental state. The Tatmadaw (military) government in Myanmar was believed to follow the model of state-led development in Indonesia under Suharto where the military took the role of establishing economic and political development. However, Myanmar has yet to achieve its goal of building a successful state-led development. Therefore, this paper argues that implementing an efficient and effective institutionalization is essential for a successful state-led development (developmental state) in Myanmar.
The Rise of China and Foreign Direct Investment from Southeast Asia
Authors: Samphantharak Krislert
Published: February 2019

This paper discusses foreign direct investment from Southeast Asia to China. With the exception of some government-linked companies, most investments from Southeast Asia have been dominated by the region's overseas Chinese businesses. In addition to cheap labour costs, large domestic market and growing economy, China has provided business opportunities to investors from Southeast Asia thanks to their geographic proximity and ethnic connections, at least during the initial investment period. However, the network effects seem to decline soon after. As the Chinese economy becomes more globalised and more competitive, the success of foreign investment in China will increasingly depend on business competency rather than ethnic relations.
Reaching across the Mekong: Local Socioeconomic and Gender Effects of Lao-Thai Crossborder Linkages
Authors: Edgardo Gomez José , Southiseng Nittana , Walsh John , Sapuay Samuel
Published: February 2019

Following trade agreements between ASEAN states, the expansion of cross-border roads and bridges between Laos and Thailand has linked local communities and distant markets in increasingly diverse ways. Although the planned impacts of such integration are expected to be beneficial, effects on the ground vary, as witnessed at a sleepy outpost in Xayabury and a more vibrant crossing in Savannakhet. This paper discusses first the physical setting of such border facilities, and then explores their actual local effects on traders’ activities, highlighting changes in gender roles and perceptions of entrepreneurial competition participated in by women in the two research sites.
The End of Political Islam? A Comparative Analysis of Religious Parties in the Muslim Democracy of Indonesia
Authors: Hamayotsu Kikue
Published: February 2019

Why do some religious parties survive after adopting a moderate ideological outlook while others do not? The rise and fall of religious parties since the onset of democratic transition in Indonesia has set off an intriguing debate over the role and future of political Islam in electoral politics. This article seeks to explain the diverging – and unexpected – trajectories of the two most prominent religious parties, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and Justice Prosperous Party (PKS) through a close examination of the case of PKB. It emphasizes organizational qualities to advance two claims. First, the decline of the moderate PKB is the result of the permeation of personality-based clientelistic and ascriptive relations as well as lack of party institutionalization. Political survival of the puritanical Islamist PKS, on the other hand, is explained by organizational cohesion achieved through party institutionalization. Second, a disciplined party structure has allowed PKS elites to achieve controversial ideological adjustments. In short, a moderate centralist religious ideology or outlook alone is not sufficient to achieve political survival in the competitive environment of electoral and religious politics.