Paradiplomacy as a provincial state-building project: The case of Yunnan’s relations with the Greater Mekong Subregion

This article examines Yunnan’s relations with the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries grouped in the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) GMS Program. While locating the analysis in the context of paradiplomacy, this article makes two claims. First, it argues that—unlike subnational governments in federal states—Yunnanese authorities do not use domestic opportunity structures to develop the province’s international agency. Instead, they pursue paradiplomacy as a subnational state-building project, designed to extract economic assistance from the central state. Second, it asserts that—unlike other Westphalian states—the Chinese government has recognized the benefits of paradiplomacy as a way to enhance the structural competitiveness of its borderland provinces in the regional economy. In doing so, it has proactively deployed provincial authorities in the multilevel governance of the GMS Program. At the same time, the central government has remained at the center of Yunnan’s external relations through providing funding and preferential policies for Yunnan’s internal and external economic projects and defining the parameters of Yunnan’s cooperation with the GMS countries and the ADB.Czeslaw Tubilewic

Taiwan's “Macedonian Project,” 1999–2001

Since 1989, Taipei has attempted to capitalize on the systemic changes in East Central Europe. It achieved its goal of winning diplomatic allies among the post-communist states only in 1999, when Macedonia recognized the Republic of China (ROC) hoping that Taipei's generosity would resolve its economic problems. In order to showcase the effectiveness of its assistance, Taipei resorted to economic diplomacy and offered Skopje loans, humanitarian and technical assistance. Yet, the Macedonian–Taiwanese partnership ended in 2001. This report will argue that Taipei failed to become a viable alternative to the People's Republic of China (PRC) as Skopje's economic and diplomatic partner because of China's clout in international affairs and its own reluctance to shower Macedonia with developmental assistance. Instead of showcasing Taiwan's ability to maintain a diplomatic ally through a pro-active economic foreign policy, the failed Macedonian project underlined the limited effectiveness of the ROC's economic diplomacy and the perennial problem of the ROC diplomacy: a successful international isolation by the PRC.Czeslaw Tubilewic

Economic Cold War: America’s embargo against China and the Sino-Soviet alliance, 1949-1963

Published in Russian Review, 2002; 61 (3):436-476 at www.interscience.wiley.comCzeslaw Tubilewic

Taiwan and the Soviet Bloc, 1949-1991

Czeslaw Tubilewic

The 2009 Defence White Paper and the Rudd Government's response to China's rise

This research note discusses the 2009 Defence White Paper, particularly its focus on the potential threat the Chinese military might pose to the security of the Asia-Pacific in the foreseeable future. It also examines Chinese responses to the White Paper's main theses. It concludes that the White Paper marked a departure from the Howard government's policy of de-emphasising differences in Canberra's dialogue with Beijing and, by re-affirming commitment to the alliance with the United States (US), delineated the limits of Australia's partnership with China. However, its poorly substantiated predictions regarding the rise of China's power, the US economic and military decline and Beijing's geostrategic objectives raise doubts about the Rudd government's capacity to formulate a coherent vision for the future of Australia's relations with China.Czeslaw Tubilewic

State transformation and the domestic politics of foreign aid in Taiwan

This article challenges the dominant narrative that overlooks the role of domestic factors in Taiwanese foreign aid in favour of politics cast at the cross-Strait and international levels. It examines the emergence and effects of partisan politics on Taipei's foreign aid policies, including aid budgets and the motivation for providing foreign aid. It argues that, rather than the cross-Strait conflict as such, it was contests and rivalries among Taiwan's political parties and government agencies – underpinned by ongoing projects of state building – that shaped the variable objectives, policies and processes of Taipei's foreign aid-giving.Czeslaw Tubilewic

Cross-strait relations and China’s reunification prospects

Czeslaw Tubilewic

Taiwan and the Soviet Union during the Cold War

Copyright © 2005 The Regents of the University of California Published by Elsevier Ltd.Taking into account recently published evidence on Taiwan’s relations with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, this article examines the official and secret contacts between Moscow and Taipei from 1949 to 1988. It argues that despite some consideration given to a possible cooperation, Cold War hostility suited Taiwan and the Soviet Union more than collaboration. Taipei resorted to the ‘Soviet card’ in the 1970s to hinder Sino—American rapprochement, but never abandoned anti-Sovietism as the foundation of its diplomacy. The Soviet Union, for its part, prioritized normalization of relations with China and avoided rapprochement with the ROC, which could have only further strained ties with the PRC and accelerated the formation of the Sino—US united front against Moscow.Czeslaw Tubilewiczhttp://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30398/description#descriptio

Jersild, Austin. The Sino-Soviet Alliance: An International History. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2013. 352 pp. $36.95. ISBN 978-1-4696-1159-4

Book reviewCzeslaw Tubilewic

Critical Issues in Contemporary China: Unity, Stability and Development

Critical Issues in Contemporary China: Unity, Stability and Development comprehensively examines key problems crucial to understanding modern-day China.Edited by Czeslaw Tubilewic