The impotence of being earnest? Avoiding the pitfalls of ‘creative middle power diplomacy’

This article critically evaluates Australia's ‘creative middle power diplomacy’, encapsulated in the three pillars of the Labor government's foreign policy platform. It notes that each pillar has been accorded specific roles in the implementation of Australian foreign policy and makes particular reference to the government's preference for multilateral engagement. The article subsequently demonstrates that such an agenda actually impedes a creative approach to key issues such as trade, climate change and non-proliferation challenges, as well as Australia's participation in Asia-Pacific order-building. It then offers some suggestions for a more flexible posture that is not inconsistent with past Labor approaches, but which also better appreciates regional and global complexities.     

中共对外政策和新中国外交史研究的起步与发展

中外关系史是新中国成立之后才建立起来的一个分支学科 ,对中共对外政策和中华人民共和国外交史的研究基本是在改革开放之后才开展的。本文简要回顾了中外关系史研究领域的拓展过程 ,介绍了有关中共对外政策和中华人民共和国外交史的史料情况 ,对近年来中外关系史研究中出现的一些热点问题作了述评 ,涉及的时间范围从解放战争时期起至“文化大革命”结束。本文的最后一部分指出了当前有关研究工作存在的不足。     

Resource nationalism or resource liberalism? Explaining Australia's approach to Chinese investment in its minerals sector

Since 2005, a burgeoning wave of Chinese investments has set off a new ‘minerals boom’ in the Australian iron ore and coal mining sectors. While normally a welcome development, the state-owned and strategic nature of the investors has raised concerns in Australia about how these should be regulated. As a result, in February 2008 the Australian government declared an intention to more closely screen foreign direct investment (FDI) from state-owned sources, which both supporters and detractors alike have claimed is evidence of ‘resource nationalism’ in Australia's approach towards its trade and investment relationships with China. This article challenges this understanding through an examination of the characteristics of Chinese mining FDI, the dilemmas these present to the Australian government, and the relatively restrained nature of its response. Through this, Australia's FDI policy is explained as a defensive move against the potential for strategic behaviour by Chinese investors resulting from their state ownership, rather than any national program to subject minerals trade and investment to political control. On this basis, the article argues that Australian government policy instead evidences a ‘resource liberalism’ approach, which intends to ensure that the governance of Australia's minerals trade and investment with China remain market-based processes.     

China's New Generation of Leaders and Regional Challenges in East Asia

A pair of Hong Kong and U.S. specialists on China examines the dynamic international environment China's new leadership now faces, focusing on East Asia. They first examine the complex balance the leadership seeks to strike between: (1) China's projection of increasing economic, military, and political power internationally; (2) the primary domestic goals of economic growth and stability; and (3) rising public awareness, demand for information access, and (in some quarters) nationalism among the Chinese people. The authors then proceed, in successive sections of the paper, to assess in greater detail China's international and regional security environment, Sino-American relations, China's relations with its East Asian neighbors, and the complex interconnections between the country's domestic and foreign policy. They conclude that Sino-American relations will continue to be pivotal to Beijing's foreign relations in general and its relations with countries in the East Asian region more specifically.     

Controversy,uncertainty and the diverse public in cultural diplomacy: Australia–China relations

In the past few years, foreign policy tensions between China and Australia have become especially fraught. In some cases, this political situation manifests in the very diplomatic initiatives that were funded to help ease relations. This article considers a case study of a theatrical collaboration in the context of contemporary Australia–China relations to interrogate the value of our understandings of and evaluation frameworks for public diplomacy. This article argues that theories of cultural diplomacy and assessments of initiatives need to consider the multiple and competing objectives, diverse publics and controversial receptions that may be the outcomes of cultural diplomatic initiatives. It demonstrates this complexity in relation to Australia–China relations. Taking a cultural diplomatic initiative that sought to increase positive association for Chinese culture in the Australian public as a case study, it illustrates the range of differences that can be found amongst stakeholders, and the different roles that may be ascribed to cultural diplomacy. These interests, including those of different artistic and political stakeholders, as well as differences in the publics involved, are best segmented not only according to nation but also to subculture.     

毛泽东与新中国谈判建交的开创

谈判建交是新中国独立自主外交的一项重要实践,是毛泽东将中华民族争取独立、平等和获得尊重的努力与国际法相结合的一次成功创新。毛泽东不仅是谈判建交的首倡者,而且在具有开创意义的中国同印度和英国的建交谈判中,扮演了决策者、设计者和领导者的角色,起到了举足轻重的关键作用。     

The theory and implementation of the People's Republic of China's revolutionary diplomacy

The foreign relations of modern China, starting from the birth of the People's Republic in 1949 until the Cultural Revolution, can be said to have had continuous ups and downs and twists and turns. Its underlying abstruse principles, while stemming from nationalism, contained for the most part the Chinese Communist Party's own revolutionary principles and individual revolutionary experiences. The Chinese Communist revolution was based on class analysis and class conflict, on struggle and ideology. This ideology determined how China viewed itself and the world; no views could be separated from the ideology of class struggle and class analysis. The leadership's adherence to this type of ideology led to the long-term instability of China's diplomacy. Though those who, like Mao Zedong, employed class revolution in order to seize political power while viewing class analysis, class struggle, and in particular the success of using class ideology in a united front policy as the magic wand of the revolution's success, were singularly able to adapt such views to China's foreign policy and diplomacy. This became the fundamental red line for China's foreign policy.     

中国谋求打开对欧关系的努力

20世纪60年代初,随着国际形势的变化,特别是中苏关系的破裂,中国在对外关系方面做出重大调整,重点是谋求打开对欧关系。为此,中国在公共关系、经济和政治外交等领域积极展开活动。总的来说,中国在上述领域所做的努力是有成效的,特别是中法关系正常化标志着中国对欧外交的一个重大突破。但也要看到,中欧关系总体上依然发展缓慢,这主要是由于大多数西欧国家仍不能摆脱美国的控制来发展对华关系造成的。     

Contextualising Australia–Japan security cooperation: the normative framing of Japanese security policy

On July 1, 2014, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's cabinet commenced a historic transformation of post-war Japan's security policy by overturning previous interpretations of the constitution's pacifist clause, Article 9. The Cabinet Decision on the Development of Seamless Security Legislation to Ensure Japan's Survival and Protect Its People stated that collective self-defence was consistent with the constitution and, consequently, Japan would immediately develop a more proactive and less constrained security policy. But while this outcome may seem sensible and overdue from a realist perspective of Japan's standing as a mature democratic nation in an increasingly difficult geopolitical situation, the manner in which it is being enacted may seriously undermine the normative legitimacy of Japan's new security identity. In this article, the author examines how Shinzō Abe's administration has attempted to shape the norms surrounding security policy revision in Japan, and how these norms, in turn, have affected or constrained Abe's agency. This is done with specific reference to the external contexts of the USA's ‘rebalance’ policy and the deepening of Japan's security relationship with Australia, with a view to anticipating how normative turmoil might impact on the potential of this relationship.     

China in Fiji: displacing traditional players?

A widely held perception in Oceania is that China has taken the opportunity of Western sanctions against Fiji's military-led regime to expand its influence in Fiji. Observers and media in the region were alarmed by the sudden increase of China's pledged aid to Fiji shortly after the 2006 military takeover. They are concerned that China has a well-calculated strategy of displacing traditional Western players in Fiji, most notably Australia and New Zealand. Such concern is not well founded. While China does have multiple interests, including strategic interests, in Fiji, there is no clear evidence to suggest that China aims to displace the traditional players there. China's growing influence in Fiji is part of China's global rise. Both Australia and New Zealand are committed to Fiji and the South Pacific as a whole. Given its substantial interests in Australia and New Zealand, it is not in China's interest to increase its influence in Fiji at the cost of its relations with these two traditional players.     

A flawed perspective: the limitations inherent within the study of Chinese nationalism1

ABSTRACT. Is nationalism in China on the rise? Is it making China more combative in the international arena? More fundamentally: Is a focus on nationalism the most effective intellectual framework for understanding how those living within the People's Republic of China (PRC) are defining their position in contemporary world politics? This article briefly answers each of these questions. It argues that, despite forwarding some compelling insights, previous work on Chinese nationalism has been undermined by a number of major flaws. It then finds that such shortcomings are in no small part a product of the narrowing gaze that a focus on nationalism alone imposes on the study of identity politics. The article then advocates that in place of the nationalism rubric, a turn to the broader question of national identity formation is merited. Utilising this perspective, it concludes by cautioning that incipient splits within contemporary Chinese national identity may portend a more tumultuous relationship between China and the rest of the world in the years to come.     

Australian Foreign Policy under the Abbott Government: Foreign Policy as Domestic Politics?

While foreign policy featured prominently on the Australian political agenda in late 2014, the manner of Australia's engagement with the world challenges the idea of a ‘pivot’ from domestic politics to foreign policy. In particular, the government demonstrated a tendency to prioritise domestic political considerations, in particular public opinion, in its dealings with the outside world. This was evident across a range of issue areas: from the ‘internationalist’ agenda of asylum, climate change and aid to more traditional concerns such as bilateral relations with Indonesia and international security. This article explores these dynamics and asks what implications this has for both Australian foreign policy and theoretical accounts of the role and desirability of public engagement with foreign policy in international relations thought.     

英国与中国的法币平准基金

英国对中国平准基金态度的演变 ,也是英国在远东与日本矛盾逐步激化、对华政策逐步趋于积极的过程。 1 93 5年中国实行法币政策时 ,英国没有加入中国平准基金。 1 93 7年中日战争爆发后 ,英国对该问题仍持消极态度。随着远东局势的演变 ,1 93 9年英国政府为英商银行加入中国平准基金提供担保 ,1 940年同意英商银行加入乙种平准基金 ,1 941年英国财政部直接供款加入中英美联合平准基金。 1 945年中英美平准基金的解散 ,则标志着英国在中国货币金融领域影响的终结