Brantly Womack

Asymmetry theory and China's concept of multipolarity

Since 1986 the concept of multipolarity has played a key role in Chinas analysis of the world order, evolving from a critique of bipolarity in the late Cold War period into a critique of American unipolarity. Although multipolarity is empirically correct in its questioning of the superpowers capacity for domination and it is ethically attractive in its insistence on international cooperation, it does not address the real problems created by the disparity of power in international affairs. Asymmetry theory is a new paradigm that addresses the effects of national disparities on international relations. It argues that asymmetry inevitably creates differences in risk perception, attention and interactive behavior between states, and that it can lead to a vicious circle of systemic misperception. Despite such tensions, however, the international order is quite stable, and even asymmetric relations can rarely be forced by the stronger side. Asymmetry confirms multipolaritys critique of unipolaritys exaggera...Since 1986 the concept of multipolarity has played a key role in Chinas analysis of the world order, evolving from a critique of bipolarity in the late Cold War period into a critique of American unipolarity. Although multipolarity is empirically correct in its questioning of the superpowers capacity for domination and it is ethically attractive in its insistence on international cooperation, it does not address the real problems created by the disparity of power in international affairs. Asymmetry theory is a new paradigm that addresses the effects of national disparities on international relations. It argues that asymmetry inevitably creates differences in risk perception, attention and interactive behavior between states, and that it can lead to a vicious circle of systemic misperception. Despite such tensions, however, the international order is quite stable, and even asymmetric relations can rarely be forced by the stronger side. Asymmetry confirms multipolaritys critique of unipolaritys exaggerated claim to absolute power, and suggests a theory of international leadership based on negotiated relationships that avoid the systemic misperceptions that asymmetry encourages.

An Exchange of Views about Basic Chinese Social Organization Review Essay: Transfigured Community: Neo-Traditionalism and Work Unit Socialism in China

In the last decade a variety of local studies and more comprehensive works have shed light on basic-level Chinese politics and society, but Andrew Walders book Communist Neo-Traditionalism has been the boldest and most influential in proposing a new paradigm for understanding the human realities of life and power in China. Although the empirical base of his study is the state industrial workplace in China, Walder claims that it is applicable to industrial relation in other communist countries, and his theory fits closely with Jean Ois analysis of clientelism in rural areas.

Asian Socialism's Open Doors: Guangzhou and Ho Chi Minh City

No country is more similar to China than Vietnam in terms of traditional society, revolutionary experience and post-revolutionary government. Yet it is equally obvious that China is not only much larger in population and territory; it is considerably more advanced economically today, and its state structure has had more time to develop organizational complexity and managerial capability. China also started the move toward a more open, competitive market economy earlier and from a stronger base, and it has experienced the most rapid economic growth in the world during the past fifteen years. All of these differences together create a contextual disparity in which similar policies in the two countries can have different effects, intermediate units have different capacities, and national-local governmental relationships have different dynamics. This paper will explore this disparity and the dimensions of regional reform in China and Vietnam by comparing the national roles of Guangzhou and Ho Chi Minh City, the two most prominent municipal leaders in economic

Contemporary Chinese politics in historical perspective

Introduction Part I. Contemporary China and its Prerevolutionary Heritage Brantly Womack: 1. The dengist reforms in historical perspective Joseph Fewsmith 2. Chinas search for democracy: public authority and popular power in China Brantly Womack 3. A bourgeois alternative? The Shanghai arguments for a Chinese capitalism: the 20s and the 80s Part II. Policy Dynamics Within The Peoples Republic of China Edmond Lee: 4. The contradictions of grassroots participation and undemocratic statism in Maoist China and their fate Marc Blecher 5. The Chinese industrial state in historical perspective: from totalitarianism to corporatism Peter Nan-Shong Lee 6. From revolutional cadres to bureaucratic technocrats Part III. Chinas Evolving World Role Hong Yung Lee: 7. Chinas search for national identity Lowell Dittmer Tiananmen 8. The Tiananmen tragedy: the state-society relationship, choices, and mechanism in historical perspective Tang Tsou.

Border Cooperation between China and Vietnam in the 1990s

In spring 1989, several thousand Vietnamese living in the northern border region waded across the Beilun River and entered China. This wave of people came carrying such goods as rice, pieces of copper, scrap iron, and the like, which they traded on the streets of their destination, the frontier town of Dongxing located in Chinas Guangxi Province. These traders were followed soon thereafter by many thousands of more Vietnamese who chose to celebrate the Tet holidays then underway by shopping in Dongxing for a variety of consumer commodities. The Vietnamese at Dongxing were not alone, for many of their compatriots also had taken the holiday occasion to make similar trips across the border and enter Guangxi. These spring developments were representative of the overall trend in the resumption of economic and trading activities along the border between China and Vietnam that unfolded slowly at the end of 1988 and start of 1989. Such activities had come to a halt 10 years earlier, a casualty of the SinoVietnam War. The 1990s would see expanding contact and cooperation along the frontier that culminated in the December 30, 1999, signing of a treaty by the foreign ministers of China and Vietnam that demarcated the land border between the two countries. This was an important symbolic step signifying the attempt by both sides to place the normalization of relations on a stable and permanent footing and the logical outcome of a decade marked by cordial relations in the border regions. The purpose of this article is to describe the process of normalization on the border during the 1990s. It first outlines the general geography of the

Asymmetry and systemic misperception: China, Vietnam and Cambodia during the 1970s

While the differences between the perspectives of countries disparate in size and power provide fertile ground for the individual misperceptions analyzed by Robert Jervis in his seminal work, the imbalance of vulnerability between the stronger and weaker sides in an asymmetric relationship can also create systemic misperceptions. The structurally based misperceptions of each side have a negative complementarity, that is, they will tend to produce a vicious circle in which the interpretation of the actions of the other side becomes further and further removed from the other sides subjective intentions, and negotiation breaks down. The constraints on asymmetric misperceptions are very different from the ‘golden rule’ because treating another as oneself is premised on reciprocity. The management of asymmetric relationships is based in part on the neutralization of issue areas by means of inclusive rhetoric and routinization and in part on creating a sleeve of normalcy for transactions through precedent and diplomatic ritual. Structural misperception is illustrated by considering two extreme dyads, that of China and Vietnam in the 1970s and that of Vietnam and Cambodia in the same period. These dyads are particularly interesting because Vietnam is in the weaker position in one and in the stronger position in the other, and it behaved according to its different dyadic positions.

China between Region and World

The article discusses the pressures that influence Chinas interactions with the world in terms of three spatial dimensions. The three dimensions that can help achieve a comprehensive and coherent picture of Chinas position are those of a single-region state, a multi-regional power and a global presence.

China as a Normative Foreign Policy Actor

Although Chinas foreign policy behaviour is often judged in terms of its compliance with Western norms, the evolution of Chinas own norms merits serious attention. From early times to the present day, Chinas international action has been structured in terms of norms. When Chinas recent behaviour is described in terms of the normative structure proposed by Tocci, its unique perspective is highlighted, though tentative questions concerning the structure are also raised. Moreover, the case of China challenges the general interpretation of norms because it emphasises relationships as essentially interactive. From the Chinese perspective, international relations are not an area for the application of abstract norms to cases, but rather a set of particular international relationships, with concrete obligations defined within the context of each relationship. The cardinal virtue of normative interaction is respect for the other. By focusing on this Chinese interpretation of normative action this working paper analyses eight case studies in Chinese foreign policy, discerning whether when and why China behaves as a normative foreign policy actor.

Democracy and the governing party (执政党): A theoretical perspective

The Fourth Plenum of the Communist Party of China held in September 2004 outlined a course of reform aimed at establishing the Party as a permanent governing party (zhizheng dang 执政党). This aim shares some of the values and procedures of legislative democracy, but is fundamentally different in structure. There are no existing cases of party-state democracy as envisioned in the governing party idea, so the theoretical question is asked, is party-state democracy possible? The paper considers the course of development and the limitations of the theory of legislative democracy and contrasts it to the course of Chinese political development. It then presents the essential elements of a democratic system, concluding with a discussion of the feasibility of party-state democracy.

China's Future in a Multinodal World Order

Over the next twenty years China is likely to become the world’s largest national economy, though not home to the richest one-fifth of the world’s population. Chinese demographic power will be qualitatively different from American technological power despite bottom-line similarities in GNP, and China will face challenges of political and economic sustainability. Assuming that globalization, constrained state sovereignty and demographic revolution continue as basic world trends, the world order is likely to be one in which concerns about conflicts of interests drive interactions, but no state or group of states is capable of benefitting from unilaterally enforcing its will against the rest. Thus, there is no set of “poles” whose competition or cooperation determines the world order, despite the differences of exposure created by disparities in capacity. Although the United States and China will be the primary state actors and their relationship will contain elements of rivalry as well as cooperation, the prerequisites of Cold War bipolarity no longer exist. Rather, the order would be best described as “multinodal,” a matrix of interacting, unequal units that pursue their own interests within a stable array of national units and an increasing routinization of international regimes and interpenetrating transnational connections.