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Book Review 701
International Journal of China Studies
Vol. 2, No. 3, December 2011, pp. 701-705
Book Review
Ian Storey, Southeast Asia and the Rise of China: The Search for Security,
London and New York: Routledge, 2011, 362pp. + xv.
One of the key issues occupying the attention of scholars of International
Relations and Asian Security in the 21st century is the astounding rise of
China as a great power. Against this backdrop, there have been numerous
studies focusing on the sources, manifestations and consequences of Chinese
growing power in the international system. Many of these studies have
sought to examine the perceptions and responses of other states – particularly
the smaller countries along China’s periphery – vis-à-vis Beijing’s growing
economic and military might. Given Southeast Asia’s geographical proximity
as well as its close historical and socioeconomic ties with the Asian giant,
it is not surprising that a large number of articles and books have chosen to
focus on the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), attempting to address how and why these smaller states have
reacted to China’s growing power the way they have.
The book under review, which is about China’s evolving relationships
with eleven Southeast Asian states (the ten ASEAN countries and East
Timor) since 1949, is the latest and a welcome addition to the existing body
of literatures. As highlighted by its subtitle, the book focuses primarily on
the security dimension of Southeast Asia-China relations, although it also
covers the political and economic interactions between the two sides. The
author justifies his focus by noting that “the security implications of China’s
rising power has been a constant preoccupation for the countries of Southeast
Asia.” (p. 2)
Storey’s book makes important contributions to the scholarship on
Southeast Asia-China relations and Asian security, in at least three major
areas.
First, this well-researched book provides a comprehensive and systematic
analysis of the development of Sino-Southeast Asian relations as an instance
of asymmetric power relations in the contemporary interstate system. While
there is no shortage of work on this phenomenon, few have approached
the subject as thorough and as painstakingly as Storey did in this volume
(exceptions include Bronson Percival’s 2007 The Dragon Looks South).
Storey’s book is comprehensive not only in terms of its scope (security as
well as political and economic interactions, as noted), but also in terms of time
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span (both Cold War and post-Cold War periods) and geographical spread (all
11 Southeast Asian states).
It is systematic in its analysis and presentation. In trying to scrutinize
the dynamics of Sino-Southeast Asian relations in an orderly manner, the
author has chosen to firstly, trace the evolution of the asymmetric relations
at the regional level (the focus of Part I), before moving onto analyzing the
respective bilateral ties between China and each of the 11 smaller states
(Parts II and III). The first part, which consists of three chapters, offers
a chronological overview of the development of China-Southeast Asian
relations since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
in October 1949 until October 2010. The chapters show how the relations
have been transformed from one plagued by mutual aversion during much of
the Cold War period chiefly due to ideological differences and the “overseas
Chinese” problem (Chapter 1), to one characterized by “engagement and
hedging” in the 1990s (Chapter 2) and “charm offensive” in the first decade
of the 21st century (Chapter 3). In these pages, Storey systematically
analyzes how China’s carefully calculated moves along with Southeast Asian
states’ responses and reappraisal in the light of a series of “game changing”
processes since the early 1990s – such as the end of the Cold War, the
Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998, the growing intra-regional trade, the
proliferation of multilateral institutions in the Asia-Pacific, and the perceived
US’ preoccupation with its “war on terror” post-September 11 – have led to
the transformation and institutionalization of relations between China and
ASEAN as a regional grouping over the past two decades. Towards the end
of Part I, the author provides a brief analysis on how the friction in the South
China Sea since 2007 has affected the relations.
The discussion on these regional dynamics offers useful macro insights
to better analyze the bilateral interactions between China and the smaller
Southeast Asian countries, which are the focus of Parts II and III of the book.
The second part consists of five chapters (Chapters 4-8), which details the
PRC’s relations with each of the five mainland Southeast Asian states, namely,
Vietnam, Thailand, Burma/Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. The third part
(Chapters 9-14) completes the circle by looking into China’s ties with each of
the six maritime Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore,
the Philippines, Brunei, and East Timor.
This brings us to the second contribution of Storey’s book. That is, by
focusing on bilateralism and by devoting a chapter-length analysis to each
of the bilateral ties, the book helps to fill a gap in the exiting literatures,
which, by and large, have tended to study Sino-Southeast Asian relations on a
regional- or ASEAN-wide basis. While the regional approach has the virtue of
underscoring certain common characteristics and overarching concerns shared
by most or all of the smaller states, it nonetheless has its own limitations. For
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instance, it may leave the incorrect impression that there is a “common” or
“united” policy among the Southeast Asian states vis-à-vis China. It may also
obscure the nuanced approaches and perceptions held by the smaller states
toward the rising power.
In contrast, focusing on each of the bilateral interactions between China
and individual Southeast Asian states – an approach adopted by Storey – not
only allows a more refined way of highlighting the distinctive patterns of
each of the bilateral ties (ranging, for instance, from cyclical tensions, special
relations to instrumental deference), but it also enables the task of comparing
the similarities and differences across the smaller states’ policies toward
certain aspects of Sino-Southeast Asian ties in a sharper manner. Storey
himself has observed that, despite the growth of multilateralism in the Asia-
Pacific, “bilateral interaction has been the most important facet of inter-state
relations.” (p. 1)
The author’s detailed and fascinating analyses in each of the country-
based chapters duly highlight how different Southeast Asian states had
perceived and reacted to some issues in subtly different ways. These include:
the legacies of their historical ties with China, the geopolitical meanings of an
increasingly mighty PRC, the impact of China’s economic rise, the preferred
approach to “manage” the giant-next-door, as well as the role of balance of
power and regional multilateral institutions. Although the author may not
have dealt with each of these issues in each of the country chapters, his focus
on bilateral dynamics has provided valuable insights as to how and why the
smaller states have come to cope with their giant northern neighbour the way
they have.
The third contribution of the book is that, it has unequivocally identified
a range of key causal factors shaping the smaller states’ policies toward the
rising power. The author identifies his explanatory variables at the outset by
stating that: “In examining state responses to the PRC, account is taken of
external stimuli as well as the influence of domestic political and economic
factors.” (p. 2) Throughout the country chapters in the book, the author
highlights and analyzes how a variety of external and domestic factors have
driven the Southeast Asian states’ policies. In his final analysis, Storey, a
Senior Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), concludes
that “each of the 11 countries took a different path in their relations with
China”, because of “an eclectic mix of elite perceptions, state ideology,
geography, security concerns, economic aspirations and responses to changes
in the geographical environment.” (p. 286)
Future studies could build on Storey’s work to further explore – on
comparative basis – how external and internal factors have interacted to
shape the individual Southeast Asian countries’ perceptions of China,
their prioritizations of “national” interests and policy instruments, and
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their eventual decisions vis-à-vis Beijing. Comparing the differences and
similarities across the states’ responses will highlight a range of themes that
are of crucial policy importance. They are, inter alia, the smaller states’
relative perceptivity about China’s charm diplomacy and economic statecraft,
their respective views on the efficacy of engagement policy, their individual
stance about the instrumentality of US presence, their preferred approach to
manage the Spratlys disputes, etc. These are all crucial policy questions for
analysts and policymakers, not least because of the recent developments in
the South China Sea. The convergence and divergence of the Southeast Asian
states’ views on these issues will not only affect the states’ respective relations
with the major powers, they will also have important bearings on regional
institutional building and regional order.
My main disagreement with the book is its conceptualization and
operationalization of the term “hedging”. As a matter of fact, Storey is
probably one of the earliest to use the term to describe Southeast Asian states’
strategic responses toward China, along with C.P. Chung (2002 & 2004),
but before Evelyn Goh (2005 & 2006), C.C. Kuik (2008 & 2010), and John
Ciorciari (2009). In a chapter analyzing Singapore’s China policy in a book
titled The China Threat: Perceptions, Myths and Reality (co-edited by him
and Herbert Yee), Storey (2002: 219) describes the ASEAN states’ responses
as “a hedging policy” that is “designed to maintain the balance of power in
the Asia-Pacific region and provide a limited deterrence against the PRC.” In
the present book, Storey deploys the term in various places. For instance, on
page 2, he refers hedging as policies that are aimed at “safeguarding against
a more assertive or even aggressive China”. Elsewhere, on page 47, he uses
the term as “a prudent measure of strategic insurance should China fail to
respond positively to Southeast Asia overtures”. On page 30, he writes that
“in an uncertain strategic environment, the United States’ military presence
underpins regional stability by acting as a counterweight to a rising China.
By hedging, the ASEAN states could keep their strategic options open against
the possibility of a future security threat from the PRC.” Along the same
line, he notes that the states “hedged by actively supporting a continued U.S.
military presence and, in some cases, strengthened their air and naval forces.”
(p. 62)
These conceptions and operationalizations of hedging are correct but
incomplete, for four reasons: (i) the conceptions did not fully reflect the
two-pronged nature of the behaviour – hedging is not a single-directional
act of safeguarding against certain dangers, but an act that entails two
sets of opposite and counteractive approaches aimed at minimizing all
perceived risks while simultaneously still trying to maximize all possible
benefits; (ii) the conceptions did not specify how hedging is distinguishable
from and related to other forms of state strategies, such as “balancing” and
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Book Review 705
“bandwagoning” as discussed on page 47 – is hedging “partially-balancing”,
“partially-bandwagoning”, and/or somewhere in between the full-fledged
version of the two strategies? (iii) in terms of operationalization, one can argue
that the goals of the smaller states’ hedging behaviour are not necessarily just
to safeguard against the risk of an aggressive China, but rather to safeguard
against multiple and all potential risks that may stem from the problem of
uncertainties in the international system – these include, but not limited to:
the strategic risks of a retreating US as the key provider of regional security,
the political and military risks of entrapment, the economic risks of being
excluded from a huge market, the economic and political risks of becoming
too dependent on a certain actor, as well as the long-term geopolitical risks of
antagonizing a neighbouring giant; and (iv) along the same line of reasoning,
one can also argue that the means of hedging are not confined to military
tools of statecraft (US military presence and the states’ own armament), but
also include non-military statecraft like multilateral institutions, geopolitical
coalitions, economic partnerships, etc. Different conceptions of the term would
lead analysts to focus on different variables in describing and explaining the
smaller states’ hedging behaviour.
These notwithstanding, Southeast Asia and the Rise of China should be
recognized as an important and thoughtful work. It should be an essential
reading for everyone who wishes to have a better understanding of the
dynamics of Southeast Asia-China relations. This book, along with Storey’s
earlier scholarly writings and policy analyses, has established him as one of
the leading authorities on the subject matter.
Dr Kuik Cheng-Chwee 郭清水
Senior Lecturer
Strategic Studies and International Relations Program
National University of Malaysia (UKM)
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International Journal of China Studies
Volume 2 Number 2 August/September 2011 ISSN 2180-3250
《
Special Issue
Reform, Governance and Equity: Exploring the Sociopolitical Implications of
Contemporary China’s Transformation
Introduction
Reform, Governance and Sociopolitical Change in Contemporary China 123
Emile Kok-Kheng Yeoh
Historical Proem
Devolution in Chinese History: The Fengjian Debate Revisited 135
David L. McMullen
Governance, Democracy and Decentralization
Modernization and the Sino-Vietnamese Model 157
Brantly Womack
China’s Grassroots Democracy: Development and Assessment 177
Huang Weiping and Chen Jiaxi
Community Party Building in Urban China 213
Ngeow Chow Bing
Social Change, Power Conguration and Global Governance
Beyond the Olympics: Power, Change and Legacy 243
Brian Bridges
Leadership Displacement and the Redesign of Global Governance: The Race of China and India 259
Solomon Cohen
The Transformation of China’s Agriculture System and Its Impact on Southeast Asia 289
Phoebe Luo Mingxuan, John A. Donaldson and Qian Forrest Zhang
Social Stratication, State and the Civil Society
Efficiency, Value and the 21st-Century Developmental State: The Transition of China 313
Jay Wysocki
Rethinking the Rural-Urban Divide in China’s New Stratification Order 327
Qian Forrest Zhang
Towards China’s Urban-Rural Integration: Issues and Options 345
Zhong Sheng
The Politics of Electronic Social Capital and Public Sphere in Chinese Lala Community: 369
Implications for Civil Society
Chin-fu Hung
The Mountains Are High and the Emperor Is Far Away: An Examination of Ethnic Violence in Xinjiang 389
David O’Brien
Stratification, Social Action and Morphogenesis: Structures and Agents in 407
Contemporary China’s Social Transformation 407
Emile Kok-Kheng Yeoh
Policy Comments and Research Notes
Governance of Small Businesses in China: An Institutional Perspective 507
Yongqiang Li, Anona Armstrong and Andrew Clarke
Book Review
Media and Dissent in China: A Review – Johan Lagerkvist, After the Internet, Before Democracy: 525
Competing Norms in Chinese Media and Society
》
reviewed by Joseph Tse-Hei Lee
Index 533
Institute of China Studies
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Book Review 707
International Journal of
China Studies
Volume 2 Number 1 April 2011 ISSN 2180-3250
Articles
Expectations and Adaptation: China’s Foreign Policies in a 1
Changing Global Environment
Jörn-Carsten Gottwald and Niall Duggan
Technical Efficiency of Commercial Banks in China: 27
Decomposition into Pure Technical and Scale Efficiency
Chan Sok-Gee
Taiwan-ASEAN Economic Relations in the 39
Context of East Asian Regional Integration
Zhao Hong
External Sector Development Index: 55
The Case of Chinese and ASEAN Economies
Mario Arturo Ruiz Estrada
Exploring Financial Cooperation between 71
China and ASEAN Countries under CAFTA
Ren Kangyu
Research Note
Perception of Reform: “China Model” as Affirmation? 99
Ling Tek Soon
Book Review
Stefan Halper, The Beijing Consensus: How China’s 117
Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century》
reviewed by Ngeow Chow Bing
《
Institute of China Studies
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