Border Regions in the Xi Jinping Era: Yunnan beyond the "Bridgehead"

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been the subject of extensive analysis since late 2013. Most of this views it as a manifestation of China’s approach to global issues under Xi Jinping, whether economic, geopolitical, or as a bid to reshape globalization. There has so far been less research into the domestic dynamics of the BRI, including at the sub-national level in China. Based primarily on an examination of provincial-level policy documents and research, this paper explores the ways in which policy makers in the southwestern province of Yunnan have responded to the BRI, and what this might mean for the implementation and shaping of the initiative. It identifies the promotion of externally-oriented development as the main response in Yunnan to the BRI, structured around the idea of making the province a ‘pivot’ to south and southeast Asia. This provincial-level response is shaped by pre-existing policy goals in Yunnan and reflects more continuity than change in policy substance. This is consistent with interpretations of the BRI as an ‘omnibus’ policy which can incorporate multiple objectives and act as a framework within which provincial actors can compete for influence or which they can use to make progress towards achieving local objectives in the context of national strategy. The paper concludes that in the case of Yunnan and the BRI, broad alignment between provincial and central government objectives suggests that on this issue, Yunnan is more of an ‘influencer’ and ‘interpreter’ than ‘ignorer’ of national policy goals.

China’s grand strategy is evolving towards greater activism under Xi Jinping – from ‘keeping a low profile’ to ‘striving for achievement’. New initiatives such as forging ‘a new type of international relations’, ‘a community with a shared future for mankind’, and the Belt and Road Initiative have become marked features of the ‘Xi-change’ in China’s grand strategy. From an economic statecraft perspective, this article hypothesises that the Xi-change led to a power centralisation in the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Railroad Economic Belt. To support its geopolitical and geoeconomic objectives, the Chinese state has replicated the domestic state-industrial complex. In the context of the Jakarta–Bandung High-speed Rail Corridor, the domestic roles of the National Development and Reform Commission and the China Railway Corporation have been internationalised to ensure the globalisation of China’s high-speed rail industry could be conducted in a concerted and choreographed fashion.

Is a pixel worth 1000 words? Critical remote sensing and China's Belt and Road Initiative

The Rise of an Illiberal China in a Liberal World Order Liselotte Odgaard (bio) Elizabeth Economy’s The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State is a compelling book explaining the paradox that, under Xi Jinping, China has become an increasingly illiberal state fighting Western liberal values, while at the same time positioning itself as a champion of the fundamental institutions of a liberal world order. China’s profile as a proponent of anticorruption, provider of significant public goods such as international development and humanitarian aid, and champion of globalization has won it wide acclaim as a force for responsible international leadership. Economy demonstrates that the rise in China’s international legitimacy has occurred alongside domestic institutional change that seeks to reverse many of the political, social, and economic developments that emerged from 30 years of liberalizing reform. The objective of this institutional change is to restore the central role of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) within the Chinese polity. This contradictory development has been facilitated by China’s ability to take advantage of the political and economic openness of other countries through policies such as the Belt and Road Initiative while providing considerable overseas political and financial commitments. At the same time, China does not provide countries with similar opportunities to engage within its borders. Even if the Trump administration does not succeed in changing China’s unfair investment and trade practices, it has rightly pointed to the need to redress the imbalance between the country’s easy access to overseas markets and its restrictive domestic policies. The anticorruption campaign has strengthened the CCP and deepened the party’s integration into Chinese society. At the same time, issues such as price levels, wealth distribution, and educational opportunities that could improve people’s basic livelihood have not been addressed. Under Xi’s presidency, the rule of law has been strengthened on the pretext of preventing the abuse of power and the dereliction of duty for personal gain. However, in contrast to Western interpretations of the rule of law, in China it is not a means of restraining arbitrary actions by those in power. Instead, it is equated with ruling the country according to the law and is used as [End Page 150] an instrument to both ensure the continued dominance of the CCP and strengthen the coercive power of the state. The book traces what might rightly be termed the totalitarian policies of the current regime back to ancient Chinese history and the politics of the People’s Republic of China. Economy argues that Xi’s form of totalitarianism constitutes a revolution due to its strategy of intensified penetration of the party-state in domestic political and economic life combined with an ambitious and expansive role for China abroad. She touches on totalitarianism when describing the leadership’s development of a social credit system that will provide benefits for good behavior and penalize bad behavior, as defined by the party. The thinking behind this form of social control is rooted in the dossier that all Chinese citizens have, which includes information such as their education, grades, workplace assessments, and political liabilities. Although the deep delving into citizens’ personal lives has resulted in some Chinese describing the system as “big brother,” numerous Chinese citizens support the effort, seeing it as a means of enhancing societal trust. In a future edition of the book, it would be interesting to include a foreword discussing the extent to which Xi’s brand of authoritarianism constitutes a totalitarian form of government, and if so, whether this type of regime indicates that China is headed toward a Sino-centric form of hierarchical government with little room for international liberal institutions. The fascinating analysis of how the party-state and its logic of control and planning creep into all corners of Chinese society begs the question of whether China’s rise will be accompanied by the use of coercive power abroad as well as at home. Indeed, Beijing may aspire to recreate a Chinese sphere of influence in Asia if the United States’ reliance on its system of democratic alliance partners unravels and is replaced by narrow U.S. interest protection. We are already...

As the Chinese state ramps up its efforts in international narrative competitions, Chinese media master new genres and test different visual languages on global social media platforms. The diverse content they produce provides a new source of information about China’s self-representations intended for foreigners and thus provides a condensed answer to one of the key questions of China’s foreign policy: Who is China? It also responds to the question that many observers outside of China pose: What does China’s rise mean for the rest of the world? To explain how Chinese state media use new mediums to (re)imagine China and narrate its relations with the world, this study focuses on the entertainment visual content they posted on YouTube between 2013 and 2019 to introduce and endorse Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI). Using a critical discursive methodology, it decodes text-visual frames created by Chinese media to bring to the fore components of BRI’s discursive politics that are imperceptible in formal diplomatic communications.

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has been an uncomfortable fit within the Chinese state. However, XUAR’s location on the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) has increased the importance of this frontier region and it is now an important element in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and China’s future. Moreover, given the BRI now underpins Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy, XUAR has increasingly become interwoven into the China Dream, the BRI and Xi’s legacy, resulting in serious human rights violations there. This article argues that the repressive control of XUAR demonstrates Beijing’s acute anxiety over opening this region up to external influences, particularly from Central Asian and Middle Eastern SREB states.

China, which has made a major economic breakthrough, has become one of the most important actors in international politics by increasing its military power in recent years. China's increasing power and influence in the international arena arouses increasing curiosity about the country's foreign policy. With Xi Jinping becoming president, China began to display a more assertive attitude or behavior on many issues. This study basically seeks an answer to the question of what differences Xi Jinping brought to Chinese foreign policy. What kind of changes do these differences lead to in Chinese foreign policy? In this study, the general tendencies and directions of Chinese foreign policy during the Xi Jinping period are discussed. The assertive foreign policy approach that Xi Jinping is trying to implement is analyzed. In this context, the visions of "Chinese dream", "new type of great power relations", "new type of international relations", “Belt and Road Initiative" and "a community with a common future for humanity", which reflect Xi's assertive foreign policy approach, are examined. At the same time, challenges to the assertive foreign policy implemented under Xi Jinping are discussed. The study mainly questions the extent to which Xi Jinping's assertive foreign policy approach is successful. The study concludes that Xi Jinping's active foreign policy approach has not increased China's sphere of influence in the international arena to the extent expected. As China becomes more visible in the international arena, the country's foreign policy challenges seem to be increasing.

Turkey and China are the countries that established their relations in the shadow of their ideological affiliation. Turkey constructed its multi-partied democratic regime as an implementation of Western-based democracy. However, this has not granted EU full-membership to the country, and Turkey has initiated alternative allies since mid 2000s. This shift of axis has turned into more enthusiasm after the failed coup d’état of 15 July 2016. The purpose of this study is to reveal how Turkish mainstream newspapers represent the Chinese alternative globalization project, “The Belt and Road Initiative” which was introduced in 2013 by General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping. In order to frame the background information, we will first introduce the aims of the Belt and Road Initiative, and then summarize Turkey’s relation to China from two aspects: political and economic concerns. Following the overview of Turko-Sino relationship, we will focus on the Justice and Development Party’s foreign policy to grasp its pragmatic concern in relation to the Belt and Road Initiative. Based on the contextualization of Turko-Sino relations, we will conduct thematic content analysis of the news on the Belt and Road Initiative from May to July 2017 in mainstream Turkish newspapers. Our analysis brings into question how Turkish press relocates the Belt and Road Initiative with respect to Turkey’s political and economic concerns about China’s alternative globalism, Turkish foreign policy seeking for new allies as alternatives for the Western counterparts, and thus we will examine President Erdoğan’s influence on Turkish foreign policy. Based on our findings, we will discuss the reasons for insufficient coverage of the Belt and Road Initiative in Turkish mainstream newspapers.

After China's rapid economic and urban shifts, many Chinese tourists now seek out environmental beauty and prefer to travel outside of major urban centres to tour China's periphery. This desire often combines with a desire to tour the ‘Others’ within China's borders. China's southwestern province of Yunnan has cornered a large share of domestic tourists by successfully marketing itself as a land of exceptional environmental beauty as well ethnic variety. In this paper, we investigate how the practice of domestic ethnic tourism in Yunnan produces a variety of modern Chinese citizens and acts as a vehicle through which Chinese discourses of modernity and tradition come together at a single site. While our primary concern is domestic tourists, we also consider issues of local cultural production in these sites. We focus on domestic tourism at Lugu Lake, home of the ‘matriarchal’ Mosuo, while drawing on our own and others' research in other Yunnan ethnic tourism sites that combine natural beauty with the allure of a feminized ethnic Other, notably the Stone Forest (Shilin) and Banna. The desires of Chinese tourists for nostalgia, exploration, and personal liberation lead them to these locales, where their participation in the wider cultural ethos of consumption and self-identification creates new conditions for authenticity and cultural performance. Through their encounters with tradition and ethnicity, as much as through encounters with other travellers, Chinese domestic tourists create modernity at their periphery and reaffirm their modern Chinese identities.

This paper investigates how Chinese elites understand the proper role of their nation vis-à-vis its ‘periphery’ and how this self-understanding shapes Chinese strategic policy toward neighboring states. It makes two specific arguments. First, after 2012 China began to understand itself as responsible for actively managing and shaping its periphery. Xi Jinping has overseen an evolution in China’s neighborhood strategy that has changed from mere engagement to proactive efforts to shape regional order. Efforts to achieve this goal have come primarily through: institution-building and regional integration via the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, strategic partnerships, normative binding, and developmental statecraft. Second, managing newly emerged power asymmetries between China and its neighbors is now a crucial task of Beijing’s peripheral policy. The emerging China-led regional order relies on norms that are hierarchical, transactional, and reflect status distinctions. Xi Jinping’s neighborhood strategy rests on an asymmetric bargain: respect China’s core interests in exchange for benevolence.

The article defines the conceptual foundations of China's foreign policy under Xi Jinping. China's foreign policy under Xi Jinping has been based on a number of concepts put forward by the Chinese government, which clearly show that China aspires to be a leading player in the international arena. The purpose of the study is to analyze the conceptual foundations of China's foreign policy under Xi Jinping. The article examines China's foreign policy initiatives implemented since 2012: Chinese dream, community of common destin», Belt and Road Initiative, new model of international relations, new model of US-China relations, common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, the principle of broad consultation, joint contribution and common benefits in global governance. The conceptual approaches of the PRC to the Asia-Pacific region, Arab countries, Latin America, and Africa are also considered. It is noted that China's foreign policy initiatives are strategic, multidimensial and innovative. Their strategy is to help achieve the grand goal – revival of the Chinese nation. China's foreign policy initiatives are multidimensial in that they cover political, security, economic, financial, legal, cultural and environmental aspects. The innovativeness of China's foreign policy lies in the fact that Xi Jinping's concepts focus on China's contribution to the overall development of mankind and it includes new Chinese theories of a multipolar world – new model of international relations and a new model of great powers.. It is also noted that Xi Jinping's foreign policy ideas are mostly politically vague and not specific enough, and that China has not yet been able to offer attractive universal concepts.

On the “Belt and Road Initiative (B&R)” (Chinese: 一带一路), which is recognized as a global infrastructure development strategy by the People’s Republic of China, for the first time in his speech in Kazakhstan on 7 September 2013, Chinese President, Xi Jinping, spoke about the ancient ‘silk road’ and mentioned the establishment of the ‘Silk Road Economy Belt’. As of June 23, 2021, China had signed 206 cooperation documents which covered communications infrastructure, interconnection, investment, trade, finance, technology, people’s livelihoods, and oceans with 140 countries and 32 international organizations to join the “Belt and Road Initiative”. In 2020 alone, Chinese investors made direct investments of US$ 18.61 billion in 58 countries along the “Belt and Road Initiative” route. In China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”, the South Caucasus region, known as the middle corridor, is of great significance in the process of transition to Europe. Although Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia officially supported this Chinese initiative, the conflict, instability and changing geopolitics in the South Caucasus region made investors uneasy. In this study, global factors, the future of the “Belt and Road Initiative” in the region and the position of the South Caucasus were studied. And, the advantages and disadvantages of the initiative are evaluated.

Goal – The aims of the research are to identify the most significant internal and external factors affecting the economic security of China and assess the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative for China's future development. Research methodology – In order to organize internal and external determinants of economic security of China, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis was applied. Moreover, an important element of the research process was an attempt to verify hypothesis that the Belt and Road Initiative is a key instrument of China’s economic security strategy. Score – China has transformed from a poor rural country into one of the main economic powers as a result of the economic reforms initiated in the late 1970s. However, we can observe that the economy of China is slowing down. In order to ensure economic security and maintain a stable economic growth as well as avoid the middle income trap China has introduced the Belt and Road Initiative. Since its announcement, the concept has been gradually gaining in importance and has finally become the key instrument of the Chinese foreign policy and a major element of economic development strategy. The main motive behind this project is to develop transport and energy infrastructure which will allow China to gain access to natural resources and new markets. An efficient transport network will facilitate trade, while energy infrastructure will prevent problems with energy and resource supply, which the Chinese economy needs. The Belt and Road Initiative is a way of boosting economic development of China through improving infrastructure from Asia to Africa and Europe and the establishment of trade links among all partner countries. The New Silk Road concept aims to use the advantages of the Chinese economy and the states participating in the initiative to stimulate its economic growth. Therefore, it is a strategy of providing long-term economic security. Originality/value – The paper raises the issue of the Chinese economic security understood as a long-term ability of the economy to achieve a relatively fast and sustainable economic growth. In this paper, the author defines the concept of economic security and with the help of SWOT analysis presents the strengths and weaknesses of China’s economy as well as opportunities and possible threats to its stability. Moreover, the paper includes comprehensive analysis of China’s motives behind the Belt and Road Initiative in the context of economic security of China.

Issues of national security are of particular scientific interest because without it. It is impossible to imagine the existence of any state. Protecting the economic and social interests of the population has long been one of the prerogatives of public policy, which has expanded to information security of the people in the face of rapid digitalization of all spheres of life and the introduction of information attack as a new form of weapon. In this context, it is essential to conduct a thorough study of primary scientific papers on economic, social and information security. In this work, it is proposed to use quantitative and qualitative bibliometric analysis methods, which allows to identify the main trends and form a basis for further research. The information basis for this work was the international scientometric database Scopus and SciVal by Elsevier, which allows you to analyze bibliographic data using built-in tools and import them for external use in the software VOSviewer. Bibliographic information is presented from the 1930s to June 2021. The results show that in the world, the most researched is the topic of first, social, second, information, and third, economic security. At the same time, these studies are interdisciplinary, mainly at the intersection of economic and social sciences and information security at the intersection of economic and mathematical, computer sciences. The analysis of time trends changes the number of scientific papers on economic, social and information security in Scopus database shows their gradual growth. In contrast, information security has the fastest growth rate. The study of geographical trends shows that economic security research occurs mainly in the United States, the Russian Federation and Ukraine (the funding of research confirms this at the expense of the relevant ministries and foundations). Social security is mostly studied in English-speaking and European countries (United States, United Kingdom, Germany). Information security research is concentrated in English-speaking (United States, United Kingdom) and China, India. The qualitative bibliographic analysis allowed to analyze the most cited, and hence the trend works on selected topics, confirming the multidisciplinary nature of the work. In addition, a cluster analysis of co-occurrence of keywords was coducted, which formed clusters devoted to social, economic, socio-psychological, legal and other issues.

This chapter analyses the Chinese green foreign energy policy and green power strategy. First, the chapter explains the shift in China’s energy policy from traditional energy security concerns, which have not disappeared, to technological dominance. This process has unfolded in parallel with the unexpected rise of China in several sectors that are key to the current energy transition, from manufacturing to critical minerals. Next, the chapter focuses on the structuring of the Chinese green energy state and explains how it has influenced the country’s green foreign engagements. A special focus is placed on the green components of the Belt and Road Initiative and on recent innovations introduced under Xi Jinping. Finally, the chapter discusses the greening of the Chinese global strategy as renewables and low-carbon technology are increasingly embedded in Beijing’s wider approach to extending its influence within the current international system.