Taming Chinese power: decoding the dynamics of Australian foreign policies toward the rise of China

ABSTRACT

As China grows in international importance and influence, more and more countries worry about how it will behave, and are preoccupied with the hard question of how to tame it. As a middle power Australia has sought ways to influence the thinking and behaviour of Chinese policymakers. The Australian approach to taming China represents an academically puzzling and politically intriguing case, which, unfortunately, has not been studied in detail. The paper has argued that the concept of taming offers significant intellectual advantages in its reconsideration of Australia’s China policy and has called for Australian scholars and policymakers, to critically rethink unspoken and understudied Australia’s taming practices and policies. To this end, this paper has proposed an experience-based theory of taming as a key research agenda.

KEYWORDS:

• Taming
• China
• alliance
• regionalism
• middle power
• liberal culture

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express his sincere thanks to Mark Beeson, Kai He, Chengxin Pan, and Ian Hall for their critical comments and suggestions, and to Matt Hood and Tom Barber for their research assistance.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Baogang He

Baogang He is the Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, Alfred Deakin Professor, Chair in International Relations, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts & Education, Deakin University. Graduated with PhD in Political Science from Australian National University in 1994, Professor He has become widely known for his work in Chinese politics, in particular the deliberative politics in China as well as in Asian politics covering Asian regionalism, Asian federalism and Asian multiculturalism. Professor He has published 6 single-authored books, 1 co-authored book, 7 co-edited books, 88 international refereed journal articles, and 66 book chapters. His publications are found in top journals including Science, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Peace Research, Political Theory, Political Studies and Perspectives on Politics. In addition, he published 3 books, 18 book chapters and 82 journal papers in Chinese.