Introduction

Abstract

This paper introduces a special section (in two parts) bridging the study areas of borderland studies and foreign relations contextualizing China. The four other papers in this special section cover China's northeast, northwest and southwest. They offer comprehensive and updated analyses of the ways in which Chinese leaders conceive the issues of the borderlands, which have implications for China's international relations. Meanwhile, the response of Chinese leaders to the challenges arising from the borderlands will be examined. The issues discussed include: sovereignty, state security, energy and resource exploration (the paper on Xinjiang by Yufang Hao and Weihua Liu); the disputes over the interpretation of regional history (the paper on China's northeast by Dingding Chen); online public opinions of China–North Korea relations (the paper by Simon Shen); and regional integration and development (the paper on Yunnan by Tim Summers).

Notes

*Bill K. P. Chou is Associate Professor of the Department of Government and Public Administration, University of Macau, China. He is the author of Government and Policy-Making Reform in China: The Implications of Governing Capacity (London and New York: Routledge, 2009), and a co-editor of China's Policies on Its Borderlands and the International Implications (Singapore: World Scientific, 2011). Other publications have appeared in Communist and Post-Communist Studies, China Information and Journal of Contemporary China. The author can be reached by email at [email protected].

^1. M. Taylor Fravel, Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Cooperation and Conflict in China's Territorial Disputes (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008); Luke T. Chang, China's Boundary Treaties and Frontier Disputes: A Manuscript (New York: Oceana Publications, 1982); Chien-peng Chung, Domestic Politics, International Bargaining and China's Territorial Disputes, (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004).

^2. James Lamont, ‘Political hands across the Himalayas’, Financial Times, (15 November 2009), available at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e93ee6ce-d210-11de-a0f0-00144feabdc0,Authorised = false.html?_i_location = http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fe93ee6ce-d210-11de-a0f0-00144feabdc0.html&_i_referer = http%3A%2F%2F.

^3. ‘US risks losing global clout—Lee Kuan Yew’, The Manila Times, (29 October 2009), available at: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/top-stories/4887-us-risks-losing-global-clout–lee-kuan-yew.

^4. Quansheng Zhao, ‘China's northeast water frontiers, East China Sea disputes and co-management approach’, in Yufan Hao and Bill K. P. Chou, eds, China's Policies on Its Borderlands and Their International Implications (Singapore: World Scientific, 2011), pp. 137–162.

^5. Dingding Chen, ‘Domestic politics, national identity, and international conflict: the case of the Koguryo controversy’, Journal of Contemporary China 21(74), (March 2012).

^6. Robert D. Kaplan, ‘The geography of Chinese power: how far can Beijing reach on land and at sea’, Foreign Affairs 89(3), (May/June 2010), p. 29.

^7. Hong Zhao, ‘China's Myanmar policies: challenges and adjustments’, in Hao and Chou, eds, China's Policies on Its Borderlands and Their International Implications, pp. 253–274; ‘ASIA: land grabs threaten food security’, IRIN, available at: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId = 84785.

^8. Brahma Chellaney, ‘Indian commentary urges China to change domestic policies to restore peace’, Hindustan Times, (3 August 2011); Jason Dean and Jeremy Page, ‘China points to Pakistan in Xinjiang attack’, The Wall Street Journal, (1 August 2011), available at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903341404576481312937363114.html.

^9. Yongnian Zheng, ‘Nationalism: dynamics of domestic transformation and international relations in China’, in Gunwu Wang and Yongnian Zheng, eds, China and the New International Order (London and New York: Routledge, 2008), p. 45.

^10. James A. Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), pp. 124–284.

^11. For details of Xinjiang's modern history, see Colin Mackerras and Michael Clarke, eds, China, Xinjiang and Central Asia: History, Transition and Crossborder Interaction into the 21st Century (Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2009).

^12. Outside Xinjiang the age limit is 18–70.

^13. Human Rights Watch, Devastating Blows Religious Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang, 17 (2C), (2005), available at: http://hrichina.org/sites/default/files/oldsite/PDFs/Reports/HRIC-HRW-Xinjiang.pdf.

^14. Colin Mackerras, ‘The disturbances in the Tibetan areas and Ürümqi 2008–2009: implications for China's international relations’, in Hao and Chou, eds, China's Policies on Its Borderlands and Their International Implications, pp. 31–40.

^15. Edward Vickers, In Search of an Identity: The Politics of History as a School Subject in Hong Kong, 1960s–2002 (New York and London: Routledge, 2003). For the illiberal aspect of British rule in Hong Kong, see Ming K. Chan, ‘The legacy of the British administration of Hong Kong: a view from Hong Kong’, China Quarterly 152, (March 1997), pp. 567–582.

^16. Gordon Mathews, Eric Kit-wai Ma and Tai-lok Lüi, Hong Kong, China: Learning to Belong to a Nation (London and New York: Routledge, 2008).

^17. Jean-François Dupré, ‘Theorizing language rationalisation in greater China: political transition, self-governance and language outcomes in post-handover Hong Kong’, in Hao and Chou, eds, China's Policies on Its Borderlands and Their International Implications, pp. 199–224.

^18. European Commission, Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament Annual Report Hong Kong 2009, (1 June 2010), p. 2, available at: http://www.eeas.europa.eu/hong_kong/docs/com_242_10_en.pdf.

^19. US Department of State, Diplomacy in Action, (11 October 2011), available at: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2747.htm.

^20. Andrew Jacobs, ‘China extends hand and fist to protesters’, New York Times, (2 June 2011), available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/world/asia/02mongolia.html?pagewanted = all.

^21. Andrew Jacobs, ‘China extends hand and fist to protesters’, New York Times, (2 June 2011), available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/world/asia/02mongolia.html?pagewanted = all

^22. Robert J. Holton, Making Globalization (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), p. 22.

^23. Peter Rosset, Food is Different: Why We Must Get the WTO out of Agriculture (Black Point, NS: Fernwood Publishing, 2006); Michael Woods, ‘Deconstructing rural protest: the emergence of a new social movement’, Journal of Rural Studies 19(3), (July 2003), pp. 309–325.

^24. The argument was derived from the author's observation of her live performance in Hong Kong on 19 March 2010.

^25. Charlotte Philby, ‘My secret life: Sa Dingding, singer and musician, 25’, The Independent, (10 May 2008), available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/my-secret-life-sa-dingding-singer–musician-25-823509.html.

^26. Thomas Josecelyn, ‘The Uighurs, in their own words’, Long War Journal, (21 April 2009), available at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/04/the_uighurs_in_their.php#ixzz1UV6LQ7PZ; ‘Palau to take Guantanamo Uighurs’, BBC News, (10 June 2009), available at: http://www.webcitation.org/query?url = http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2Fasia-pacific%2F8092502.stm&date = 2009-09-19; ‘Four Uyghur detainees released’, Radio Free Asia, (11 June 2009), available at: http://www.webcitation.org/query?url = http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rfa.org%2Fenglish%2Fnews%2Fuyghur%2Frelease-06112009074832.html&date = 2009-06-11.

^27. The works by Mackerras, Wacker and Shichor are among the rather scant literature offering insight into the Xinjiang factor in China's relations with the West, Central Asia, South Asia and the Muslim World. See Mackerras, ‘The disturbances in the Tibetan areas and Ürümqi 2008–2009’, pp. 19–45; Gudrun Wacker, ‘China and its Central Asian neighbour’, in Hao and Chou, eds, China's Policies on Its Borderlands and Their International Implications, pp. 69–91; Yitzhak Shichor, Ethno-Diplomacy: The Uyghur Hitch in Sino-Turkish Relations (Honolulu, HI: East-West Center, 2009).

^28. Xu Songling, ‘Zhongguo—Dongbei Ya guojia zhijian de huanjing hezuo’ [‘Environmental cooperation between China and the countries of Northeast Asia’], Dongbei Ya Luntan [Forum of Northeast Asia] no. 1, (2002), pp. 49–54, quoted from Alexander Woodside, ‘The Centre and the borderlands in Chinese political theory’, in Diana Lary, ed., The Chinese State at the Borders (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007), p. 26.

^29. Woodside, ‘The Centre and the borderlands in Chinese political theory’, p. 15.

^30. ‘White papers’, Chinese Government's Official Portal, available at: http://english.gov.cn/official/2005-08/17/content_24165.htm.

^31. Wang Lixiong, Wo de xiyu, ni de dongtu [My Western Territories but Your Eastern Turkestan] (Taipei: Da kuai Culture Press, 2007), pp. 161–176.

^32. Woodside, ‘The Centre and the borderlands in Chinese political theory’, p. 15.

^33. Bill K. P. Chou, ‘Local autonomy matters: one-country two-system policy in Macao and its implications for China's policies on its borderlands’, in Hao and Chou, eds, China's Policies on Its Borderlands and Their International Implications, pp. 225–252.

^34. For details on the impact of central government's fiscal transfer on local governments' acts, see Bill K. P. Chou, Government and Policy-Making Reform in China: The Implications of Governing Capacity (London and New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 41–63.

^35. Edmund Waite, ‘The emergence of Muslim Reformism in contemporary Xinjiang: implications for Uyghurs’ positioning between a Central Asian and Chinese context', in Ildikó Bellér-Hann, M. Cristina Cesàro, Rachel Harris and Joanne Smith Finley, eds, Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia (Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007), pp. 170–171. Concerning the details of Uyghur identity, see Arienne M. Dwyer, The Xinjiang Conflict: Uyghur Identity, Language Policy and Political Discourse (Policy Studies 15) (Honolulu, HI: East–West Center, 2005); and Justin Jon Rudelson, Oasis Identities: Uyghur Nationalism along China's Silk Road (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).

^36. Dru C. Gladney, Dislocating China: Reflections on Muslims, Minorities and other Subaltern Subjects (London: Hurst & Co., 2004).

^37. See ‘Qu lu gu hu ti yan mo suo ren de zou hun feng su’ [‘To experience Mosuo's walking marriage in Lake Lugu’], Kunming luyou wang [Kunming Trip Net], available at: http://www.kmtrip.net/big5/yunnan/lijiang/travelnote/travelnote04.htm.

^38. For details about the major decisions in the 2010 Central Work Conference, see Hu Jintao, ‘Shen ru guan che luo shi ke xue fa zhan guan, nu li tui jin xin jiang kua yue shi fa zhan he zhang zhi jiu an’ [‘Implementing and realizing scientific view of development, striving to promote fast development and social stability in Xinjiang’], in Archive Research Office of CCP Central Committee and Party Committee of CCP Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, eds, Xinjiang gongzuo wenxian xuanbian 1949–2010 [A Collection of Selected Documents on Xinjiang Work 1949–2010] (Beijing: Central Archive Press, 2010), pp. 702–725.

^39. Wen Jiabao, ‘Shi shi wen jiang xing jiang, fu min gu bian zhan lue, cu jin xin jiang jing ji she hui you hao you kuai fa zhan’ [‘Implementing the policies of stabilizing and developing Xinjiang; enriching the people and strengthening the border defense; promoting the economic and social development in Xinjiang quickly and satisfactorily’], in Archive Research Office of CCP Central Committee and Party Committee of CCP Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, eds, Xinjiang gongzuo wenxian xuanbian 1949–2010, pp. 657–678.

^40. Yufan Hao and Weihua Liu, ‘Xinjiang: increasing pain in the heart of China's borderland’, Journal of Contemporary China 21(74), (March 2012).

^41. Chen, ‘Domestic politics, national identity, and international conflict’.

^42. Simon Shen, ‘The hidden face of comradeship: popular Chinese consensus on the DPRK and its implications for Beijing's policy’, Journal of Contemporary China 21(75), (June 2012).

^43. Kaplan, ‘The geography of Chinese power’, p. 29.

^44. Tim Summers, ‘(Re)positioning Yunnan: region and nation in contemporary provincial narratives’, Journal of Contemporary China 21(75), (June 2012).