Suchergebnisse

1. Introduction -- pt. I. Breznev's Containment Policy. 2. The Soviet Union's China Strategy, 1969-79. 3. The Sino-Soviet Conflict in Perspective -- pt. II. The Road to Beijing. 4. Leadership Change in the USSR and Sino-Soviet Relations, 1980-85. 5. Pressures for Continuity and Change in Soviet China Policy in the Early 1980s. 6. From Rapprochement to Normalization. 7. The Gorbachev Revolution and China Policy -- pt. III. Toward Sino-Russian Partnership. 8. Sino-Russian Relations in the Yeltsin Era. 9. Moscow and the Border Regions Debate Russia's China Policy

The article examines Sino-Russian relations in Central Asia against the background of the deepening partnership between Moscow and Beijing. We have yet to see any substantial Sino-Russian cooperation in Central Asia, even though Xi and Putin pledged at their March 2023 summit meeting to expand such cooperation. China's Central Asian diplomacy has been more active of late, but this has not necessarily come at the expense of Russian influence. While some Chinese experts see Russia's distraction with the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to advance the PRC's economic interests in the region, others point to China's soft-power deficit as an obstacle to further gains. Despite China's growing economic clout, Russia retains considerable negative hegemony and has sought to check Chinese plans for energy connectivity to maintain its own role as a regional energy supplier. Though the two countries share an interest in preventing the expansion of Western influence, Russian and Chinese actions have in fact led the Central Asian countries to seek partners outside the region.

Russia's cooperative approach to Asia contrasts with its assertiveness in Europe and the Middle East, though the Russian military also has made provocative maneuvers near Japan and US Pacific bases. Ukraine may be far from the Asia-Pacific, but the Ukrainian conflict also casts a shadow on Russia's Asia policy.

Although China is Afghanistan's neighbor, strategic partner, and one of its largest foreign investors, it has kept a low profile overall on Afghanistan compared to other states in the region. This article seeks to understand China's Afghanistan policy within the context of the Chinese government's overall approach to foreign affairs. A review of China's Afghanistan policy show a reluctant involvement, with domestic economic and security interests leading and foreign policy following. A final section examines the uncertain policy environment that China faces in devising an Afghanistan policy and some of the scenarios that Chinese scholars envisage for Afghanistan post-2014.

A review essay covering books by: 1) XI Chen, Social Protest and Contentious Authoritarianism in China (2012); 2) Yumin Sheng, Economic Openness and Territorial Politics in China (2012).