Falling in and falling out: Indo-Pacific in the midst of US–China tensions in the post-COVID world: introduction to the special issue

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In an internal speech to domestic security in 2014, Xi Jinping referred to the ‘intensification of competition of two types of ideology’ and warned against US and Western efforts to Westernise and split China, see p.230 of 习近平关于防范风险挑战、应对突发事件论述摘编 [Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discourses on Preventing Risks and Challenges and Responding to Emergencies] 中央文献出版社 [Central Party Literature Press] (2020). In academia: 强世功 [Qiang Shigong], ‘中美‘关键十年’ – – ‘新罗马帝国’与‘新的伟大斗争’ [Ten Key Years for China and the US: the ‘New Roman Empire’ and the ‘Great New Struggle]’, 《东方学刊》[Dongfang Journal] 总第9期 [No. 9] 4 September 2020, available at Fudan University http://www.cifu.fudan.edu.cn/12233/list.htm. In state media: ‘言而无信、一意孤行!人民日报九论美国“必将失败” [Going back on one’s word and having it all one’s own way! Nine debates in the People’s Daily about how the United States is “sure to fail”]’, 人民日报 [People’s Daily], 31 May 2019, http://m.people.cn/n4/2019/0531/c205202-12772476.html and王平 [Wang Ping], ‘不吐不快┃让“投降论”成为过街老鼠 [Vomit for relief: Let’s make “surrender theory” like a mouse crossing the street]’, 新华网 [Xinhua], 7 June 2019, available at http://www.xinhuanet.com/comments/2019-06/07/c_1124595223.htm. (Note: the ‘mouse crossing the street’ is a reference to Maoist strategy against those who disagree).

2. See for example in English: Huxia, ‘Xi Focus: Xi says Chinese dream by no means hegemonistic’, Xinhua (23 November 2019) available at http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-11/23/c_138576426.htm; Liangyu, ‘China never seeks hegemony, expansion: Xi’, Xinhua, (18 October 2017) available at http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-10/18/c_136688549.htm.

3. The ‘new era’ is reference to ‘Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era’, a signature policy of Xi Jinping that was introduced to the State Constitution in 2018 and first introduced at the 19th National Congress in October 2017. Foreign policy ideas included that ‘major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics aims to foster a new type of international relations and build a community with a shared future for mankind’. See: Xiang Bo, ‘Backgrounder: Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era’, Xinhua, 17 March 2018, available at http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-03/17/c_137046261.htm accessed 2 September 2020.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexander C. Tan

Alexander C. Tan is Head of Department and Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Canterbury, University Chair Professor of the Department of Political Science and Taiwan Institute of Governance and Communications Research at the National Cheng- chi University (Taiwan), and Honorary Professor of the New Zealand Defence Force Command and Staff College. A graduate of Texas A&M University, University of California at Santa Barbara, and Ateneo de Manila University, he has published extensively in the areas of political parties and elections, political economy, Asian politics and international affairs.

Jason Young

Jason Young is Director of the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre and Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington. He studied Chinese at Fu Jen University and Tunghai University in Taipei and Taichung and is a graduate of the University of Otago and Victoria University of Wellington. Jason’s research focuses on China’s domestic politics and foreign policy and New Zealand-China relations. He is author of China’s Hukou System (Palgrave 2013), the second edition of Politics in Pacific Asia (with Xiaoming Huang) and a number of journal articles and chapters in English and Chinese.