Suchergebnisse

Introduction: "Peaceful rise" vs. "Beautiful Japan" -- A short history of charm in Japan-China relations -- Southeast Asia: learning to treat neighbors as peers -- South Korea: a suspicious power resistant to charm -- Taiwan: negotiating self-identity and security -- Conclusion: the dynamic wooing game

Chinese president Xi Jinping is most famously associated with his "Chinese Dream" campaign. Xi environs the dream to be one about the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Many observers, though, view China's pursuit of this dream as alarming. They see a global power ready to abandon its low-profile diplomacy and eager to throw its weight around. This book represents an inter-disciplinary effort of deciphering the Chinese Dream and its global impact. Jing Sun employs concepts from political science and journalism and those from literature, sociology, psychology and drama studies, to offer a multi-level analysis of various actors' roles in Chinese foreign policymaking: the leaders, the bureaucrats, and its increasingly diversified public. The title - Red Chamber has two layers of meanings: first, it refers to an earlier Chinese dream that nearly all the Chinese are familiar with - an 18th century literature classic Dream of the Red Chamber that describes the rise and fall of seemingly invincible powerhouses; second, it refers to the ornate, red-painted headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party in downtown Beijing, where its leaders now are dreaming global - hence the second part of the title World Dream. The classic epic novel Dream of the Red Chamber also offers methodological inspirations for this book: in telling a grand family's demise, the author Cao Xueqin rejected making any particular group of actors dominating the story narrative. Instead, he detailed activities by people at all levels. By doing so, the book presented a dynamic network of interactions, as power sparks on the nodes of this cobweb. Likewise, this book rejects a simple dichotomy of an omnipotent, authoritarian state versus a suppressed society. Instead, it examines how Chinese foreign policy is constantly being forged and contested by interactions among its leaders, bureaucrats, and people. The competition for shaping China's foreign policy also happens on multiple arenas: intra-party fighting, inter-ministerial feuding, social media, TV dramas and movies, etc. This book presents a vast amount of historical details, many unearthed the first time in the English language. Meanwhile, it also examines China's diplomatic responses to ongoing issues like the Covid-19 crisis. The result is a study multi-disciplinary in nature, rich in historical nuances, and timely in contemporary significance.

Introduction: "Peaceful rise" vs. "Beautiful Japan" -- A short history of charm in Japan-China relations -- Southeast Asia: learning to treat neighbors as peers -- South Korea: a suspicious power resistant to charm -- Taiwan: negotiating self-identity and security -- Conclusion: the dynamic wooing game

This paper examines the Japanese factors behind the stalemate between Japan and Russia. It treats the territorial dispute not as a core reason but as a consequence of deeper problems, both emotive and structural. Japanese leaders cannot challenge the multiple forces keeping them from ending the stalemate.

This article examines the shrinking influence of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in China's foreign policymaking, at a time when the country's diplomatic needs are rapidly growing. By utilizing the theory of domestic sources of international relations, this article argues that the MFA has been under stress from all directions: sidestepped by Party leaders from the top, challenged by competing ministries horizontally, and mocked by the public from below. The article also assesses the consequences a marginalized MFA has brought to Chinese diplomacy. (J Contemp China/GIGA)

Although China's assertiveness has been a major factor in the latest hardening of relations in East Asia, Beijing's retreat from soft power has not necessarily benefited those who are viewing the rise of China most anxiously.

Is soft power still relevant in East Asian international relations today? Just a few years ago, even to ask such a question would have seemed unthinkable. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, "soft power" did not just matter -- it represented the future. It signified the rise of a new and more aspirational pattern of international relations, in which countries compete to win the hearts and minds of foreign audiences through listening, persuading, and cooperating -- in other words, through wooing. What a difference a couple of years can make. Today, even a casual observer of the international scene cannot help but notice the hardening of relations among East Asian countries, and most discussions of power in the region now focus on the hard rather than the soft variety. In the eyes of China's neighbors, Beijing has become markedly blunt in asserting its national interest. There is little charm to speak of in a fire-breathing dragon. Beijing's aggressiveness has captured considerable attention, but China is not the only source of friction in East Asia. After Japan's Shinzo Abe returned to the office of prime minister in December 2012, China and South Korea voiced concerns about his administration, in which politicians who are defiantly unapologetic for Japan's past wrongs occupy key positions. Tensions have risen on the Korean Peninsula as well. In the first half of 2013, North Korea, under the young leader Kim Jong-un, issued one war threat after another against South Korea and the United States. The North's continuing brinkmanship makes clear that South Koreans' newly celebrated charm could hardly reach their brothers and sisters to the north of the 38th parallel, much less melt the hearts of leaders and officers in Pyongyang. Confronted with this recent evidence, it is natural to wonder whether soft power still has a future in East Asia. Is the region headed back to a dark, Thucydides-like future of "He who has the sword makes the rule?". Adapted from the source document.