Network analysis approach to China’s cooperative multilateral strategy in Asia between 1995 and 2020

ABSTRACT

This article examines Asia’s cooperation and China’s participation in it between 1995 and 2020, where Asia is conceptualized as a bimodal network of regional organizations and member countries. The analysis puts forward empirical evidence of the success of China’s cooperative multilateral strategy in the region and explains how the expanded presence in the existing regional multilateral framework and establishing new ones safeguards the unique network position of the most well-connected actor in a region as mosaic as Asia is. China’s proactive contribution to the existing frameworks legitimized and intensified all links (ties) in the region and creating new regional platforms has increased connectivity between other actors in Asia.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• Regional Cooperation
• Asia
• Network Analysis
• International Organizations
• Multilateralism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data and material (data transparency)

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/rdscy/?view_only = 7e6c4a1226bc4e0c855a86c476f55b6f reference name China’s Cooperative Multilateral Strategy in Asia between 1995 and 2020.

Code availability (software application or custom code)

The code that was used in this study is openly available in Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/rdscy/?view_only = 7e6c4a1226bc4e0c855a86c476f55b6f reference name China’s Cooperative Multilateral Strategy in Asia between 1995 and 2020

Notes

1 More specifically, for example, Boao Forum’s for Asia (BFA) official website says it’s ‘an international organization jointly initiated by twenty-nine member states’ (Boao Forum for Asia Overview, 2020), but BFA Charter also suggests it’s ‘a non-government and non-profit international organization with a permanent principal location and shall hold meetings on a regular basis’ (Boao Forum for Asia Charter, 2020). Non-government organization aren’t a part of the dataset since participating representatives are leaders from government, but also former leaders, prominent businessmen, and academia members—Singapore, for example, was represented by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during the 38th and 39th ASEAN Summits and by Wong Kan Seng (Former Deputy Prime Minister), Goh Chok Tong (Emeritus Senior Minister) together with in-office Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat and other Singaporean business-world representatives during the recent Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022 while some countries were not represented by in-office government officials at all. Such a wide representation makes it impossible to operationalize the membership criteria.

2 Actors Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong (as in some IOs they have a separate seat) are not included in the dataset.

3 All data for this project is available online

https://osf.io/rdscy/?view_only=7e6c4a1226bc4e0c855a86c476f55b6f

4 R routine for matrix transformation is available online

https://osf.io/rdscy/?view_only=7e6c4a1226bc4e0c855a86c476f55b6f

5 Please refer to Table 1. for selected coefficients of centrality between 1995 and 2020. Full 1995, 2005, 2015, 2020 data for all actors is available online

https://osf.io/rdscy/?view_only=7e6c4a1226bc4e0c855a86c476f55b6f

6 Interestingly, admitting that informal discussions at APEC meetings covered all kinds of unrelated to free trade issues like common security or South China Sea issue supports the important theoretical caveat of this research that platforms always serve one main goal—to establish a link between actors and that link can be used in all the unpredicted ways no matter what is the original idea of an organization or a platform.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Volha Kryvets

Volha Kryvets is a PhD candidate in International Relations at SIRPA, Fudan University researching networks of regional organizations in Asia and China’s regional posture. Previously received her MPA from the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University and conducted a research internship at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Division of Social Science.