IBEI International Studies Conference 2014

Sean Golden, a member of the Inter-Asia research group, spoke at the 2014 IBEI International Studies Conference at the Instituto Barcelona de Estudios Internacionales (IBEI; Barcelona, Spain, 19-20/06/2014) on the subject of

Chinese IR Theor(ies)

Abstract

Under Mao Zedong the socialist revolution in China based its foreign policy on combating imperialism, aiding national liberation movements and promoting non-alignment. Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin preferred a low profile and constructive integration into the processes and institutions of globalisation. Hu Jintao promised a peaceful rise. Will there be changes in the PRC’s foreign policy under the leadership of Xi Jinping? There have been calls for the creation of a “Chinese School of IR Theory” and various Chinese experts have made a variety of proposals in this regard. New Confucianists offer an alternative vision of a new world order. Chinese think tanks analyse “Comprehensive National Power”. There are symptoms of populist nationalism and incipient militarism in some sectors of power and public opinion. This paper will offer an overview of the changes under way in discourse and in policy, with special attention to the work of Qin Yaqing, Yan Xuetong and Zhao Tingyang, in order to offer hypotheses about future trends in China’s foreign policy and their possible impact on international relations.

Keywords: China, foreign policy, international relations, IR Theory, Comprehensive National Power

The Chinese Communist Party in the Eyes of European Scholars / 欧洲学者眼中的中国共产党国际研讨会

Sean Golden, a member of the Inter-Asia research group, participated in the high-level meeting of officials from the Central Committee of the Communst Party of China (CPC) with 15 European scholars that was organised in Copenhagen (Denmark) by the Asia Research Centre (ARC) of Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and the China Centre for Contemporary World Studies (CCCWS) of the International Department of the Central Committee on 11/0612014 to discuss CPC Studies in Europe and the role of the CPC in China.

He delivered a report on Chinese Studies in South Europe and a series of CPC Studies research questions and called for closer cooperation between Chinese think tanks and European think tanks.

Liu Yunshan 刘云山, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of theCPC, and other high-level officials, also took part in the meeting.

Research questions for CPC studies: 

1. Is the CPC a political party or is it the entire political system? Can it really be compared to political parties in Western liberal democracies?
2. If the most important task of the CPC from the historical point of view was the planning of the economy, and if the CPC renounces central planning of the economy, what is now the most important task of the CPC?
3. If power comes from the people, and power is exercised on behalf of the people, how can the CPC demonstrate that it is accountable to the people?
4. What is the importance of economy of scale in political matters? If the EU seems to have learned that it is necessary to create a centralised bureaucracy based on meritocracy --the European Commission-- in order to guarantee planning and continuity (something the Chinese political culture invented thousands of years ago), as well as the separate branches of government (executive, legislative, judiciary), and China already has the centralised bureaucracy, does the CPC need to experiment with the separation of powers that was developed by European political philosophy?
5. What is the future of "one country, two (or more) systems"?
6. Should meritocracy as the basis for being selected for a governing position include people who do not belong to the CPC?
7. If Chinese people say that they have been accustomed for thousands of years to being selected rather than to being elected, in what circumstances does the CPC see elections as a valid and efficient process of selection?

Members of the Chinese delegation:

• Liu Yunshan 刘云山，Secretary of the CPC central committee, headmaster of Party School of the CPC
• Chen Xi 陈希，Vice-Minister of Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee
• Liu Biwei 刘碧伟，Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in the Kingdom of Denmark
• Li Jinjun 李进军，Vice-Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee
• Guo Yezhou 郭业洲，Vice-Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee，Chairman of the Council of China Center for Contemporary World Studies
• Jiang Jinquan 江金权，vice-director of Central Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, general secretary of Party-building leadership of the CPC Central Committee
• Ding Wei 丁伟，vice minister of China’s Ministry of Culture
• Sun Haiyan 孙海燕, Director of the China Center for Contemporary World Studies (CCCWS) 

European scholars:

• Mr Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard, Professor and Director of the Asia Research Centre, Copenhagen Business School.
• Mr Sebastian Heilmann, the founding director of the national Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in Berlin and professor for the political economy of China at the University of Trier, Germany.
• Mr Frank Pieke, chair professor in modern China studies at Leiden University.
• Mr Stig Thøgersen,
• professor of China Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark.
• Mr. Martin Jacques, Senior Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, Cambridge University, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing.
• Mr. Sean Golden, full Professor of East Asian Studies and Director of the East Asian Studies & Research Centre – CERAO at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).
• Mr Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Politics and Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.
• Mr Flemming Christiansen, Sociological Institute and Institute of East Asian Studies, The University of Duisburg-Essen.
• Mr Zhengxu Wang, Associate Professor at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham.
• Mr Nis Grünberg, PhD Fellow at Asia Research Centre, Copenhagen Business School.
• Ms Sarah Eaton, Associate Professor in Contemporary China Studies at the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, University of Oxford.
• Mr Giovanni Andornino, Assistant Professor of International Relations of East Asia at the University of Torino (Italy); Vice President of the Torino World Affairs Institute.
• Mr Daniele Brombal, Assistant Professor at the Department of Asian and North African Studies of Venice Ca' Foscari University (Italy).
• Mr Nis Høyrup Christensen,  Assistant Professor at Asia Research Centre, Copenhagen Business School.
• Mr Andreas Mulvad, PhD Fellow at the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen. 

EastAsiaNet Research Workshop, Memory in East Asia: Ruptured Pasts, Contested Presents, Uncertain Futures

Sean Golden, member of the Inter-Asia research group, spoke at the EastAsiaNet Research Workshop, Memory in East Asia: Ruptured Pasts, Contested Presents, Uncertain Futures, at the White Rose University East Asia Centre of the University of Sheffield (UK), 24-26/04/2014, on the subject of:.

后折腾时代 houzheteng shidai. From the Cultural Revolution to the Chongqing Model and Beyond. What Have the Children of Yan’an in Mind for the Future?

Abstract

How do the Chinese people –and more specifically, their current leaders-- understand their contemporary experiences in relation to the Maoist period (1956-1976) of the Chinese socialist revolution? How are social institutions, power relations and communications media –including the new ICTs and social networks-- involved in the construction of the corresponding discourses, and what are the implications of memories of Maoism for economic and political, as well as social and cultural relations and institutions, in East Asia and for the 21^st century world order? The “Chongqing Model” associated with the now disgraced leader 薄熙來 Bo Xilai, contemporary debate about the famine that followed the “Great Leap Forward”, the recent fleeting appearance in the Chinese media of the image of the “tank man” from1989 and the novel «盛世:中國, 2013年» by 陳冠中 Chan Koon-chung [“In an Age of Prosperity: China 2013”, published in 2008; published in English as The Fat Years in 2011] will serve as case studies to explore how the past, present and future are mediated, negotiated and embedded in public discourses through discursive practices in contemporary China. Chan Koon-chang portrays a fictitious –but ominously realistic-- collective amnesia. The Famine seemed to have disappeared from collective memory and the events of 1989 are taboo in public, yet efforts are being made to restore those memories. People marginalised by the processes of 改革开放 gǎigékāifàng recur to Maoist terminology and analyses to defend their rights. The Party condemns Bo Xilai for his policy of “唱红” chàng hóng singing red songs but 习近平 Xi Jinping uses 毛文體 [毛文体] Mào wéntǐ “MaoSpeak” to structure his own discourse on the 中國夢 Zhōngguó mèng “Chinese Dream”. What do the 延安儿女 Yán'ān ér-nǚ “Children of Yan’an” think about the past? And what have they in mind for the future?