Benjamin Ho

Understanding Chinese Exceptionalism China’s Rise, Its Goodness, and Greatness

As a branch of Chinese political thought, Chinese exceptionalism has recently been the subject of renewed scholarly analysis. By stressing what is unique about China, claims about Chinese exceptionalism seek to provide a different approach to the challenge of global governance, one not dominated by the liberal traditions of the United States and the West more generally. This article argues that Chinese exceptionalism—as understood by the Chinese themselves—represents a nationalistic discourse that attempts to navigate the political and sociological contours concerning what it now means to be Chinese. By stressing what is “good” and “great” about China, Chinese exceptionalism seeks to provide Chinese policy makers substantial traction and legitimacy in the manner in which they choose to frame China’s interactions with the outside world.

Rising Sino-Japanese competition: perspectives from South-East Asian elites

ABSTRACT One of the biggest challenges for the East Asian region today is the Sino-Japanese relationship. Starting with the fishing trawler incident in September 2010, followed by Japans nationalisation of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, this relationship is experiencing an escalation of tensions in most, if not all, areas of the bilateral relationship. In response to the intensifying competition, China and Japan have elevated the importance of South-East Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in their foreign policy strategies. Focusing on how elites from five South-East Asian states—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam—perceive the engagement of China and Japan with the region, this article poses two questions: (1) How do South-East Asian elites view the Sino-Japanese competition? and (2) How do South-East Asian elites view the role of ASEAN in managing the competition? The analysis here concludes that while some South-East Asian elites see opportunities in the Sino-Japanese competition, they nevertheless do not perceive it as an issue of critical significance. Instead, the concern lies generally with major-power dynamics, and particularly with Sino-US relations. ASEAN is viewed to lack the ability to manage the negative consequences of the Sino-Japanese competition, although its external balancing function has perceptibly helped to restrain any escalation of major-power tensions.