Huiyun Feng | Griffith University (original) (raw)
Papers by Huiyun Feng
The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 2019
The establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) signified China's 'charm off... more The establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) signified China's 'charm offensive' towards multilateral institutions and existing global financial governance. If the rise of China is inevitable, what will the future world look like, and what should other countries be prepared for? Borrowing insights from institutional balancing theory and role theory in foreign policy analysis, this project introduces a 'leadership transition' framework to explain policy dynamics in global governance, with the AIIB as a case study. It suggests that China, the United States, and other countries have employed different types of institutional balancing strategies, i.e. inclusive institutional balancing, exclusive institutional balancing, and inter-institutional balancing, to compete for influence and interest in the process of establishing the AIIB. A state's role identity as a 'leader', a 'challenger', or a 'follower' will shape its policy choices in global governance regarding different institutional balancing strategies in the process of 'leadership transition.' Institutional balancing is a new type of balancing among states in the future transformation of global governance. China's institutional rise in global governance, therefore, might be more peaceful than widely predicted.
Globalization and Health
Background During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, states were called upon by the World Healt... more Background During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, states were called upon by the World Health Organization to introduce and prioritise the collection of sex-disaggregated data. The collection of sex-disaggregated data on COVID-19 testing, infection rates, hospital admissions, and deaths, when available, has informed our understanding of the biology of the infectious disease. The collection of sex-disaggregated data should also better inform our understanding of the gendered impacts that contribute to risk of exposure to COVID-19. In China, the country with the longest history of fighting the COVID-19 infection, what research was available on the gender-differential impacts of COVID-19 in the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic? Methods In this scoping review, we examine the first 6 months (January–June 2020) of peer-reviewed publications (n = 451) on sex and gender experiences related to COVID-19 in China. We conducted an exhaustive search of published Chinese and English l...
International Affairs, 2022
Most research on status in international politics focuses on a state's ‘trait status’, define... more Most research on status in international politics focuses on a state's ‘trait status’, defined by valued attributes that a state possesses, but ignores the importance of ‘role status’, which is constituted through state interactions and competent practices in world politics. By integrating prospect theory and role status scholarship, this article introduces a ‘status-saving’ argument to shed light on how states adopt risk-acceptant strategies to salvage the decline in their role status in world politics. We test the status-saving argument by examining the ASEAN states’ bold community-building efforts in the early 2000s, especially the adoption of the ASEAN Charter in 2007. We argue that both the economic and political conditions of ASEAN were far from mature enough to pursue such an institutionalization and legalization endeavour. The perceived decline of international role status after the 1998 Asian financial crisis, however, encouraged the ASEAN states to take this ‘great lea...
The South China Sea Disputes, 2017
It is too early to worry about China's Monroe Doctrine. Asian countries need to think about how t... more It is too early to worry about China's Monroe Doctrine. Asian countries need to think about how to deal with its new Nixon Doctrine in the near future. Commentary THE "MONROE Doctrine" is gaining popularity in both scholarly and policy discourses on Asian security. Specifically, scholars and pundits are warning that China will adopt its own "Monroe Doctrine" to dominate Asia and "kick America out." China has simultaneously faced standoffs in the East China Sea and South China Sea, engaged the United States and Russia geopolitically, and showed a tough stand toward Hong Kong.
How China Sees the World, 2019
This chapter provides a comprehensive assessment of what Chinese international relations (IR) sch... more This chapter provides a comprehensive assessment of what Chinese international relations (IR) scholars think about China’s power. We find that that most Chinese IR scholars hold a seemingly contradictory but realistic view of China’s capabilities in the international system. Although they are optimistic about China’s rise, they do not perceive a rapid decline of the United States in the foreseeable future, nor do they envision China overtaking the United States in terms of its economic, military, political, cultural, and comprehensive power. In addition, Chinese IR scholars do not perceive a confrontation between China and the outside world. Instead, they advocate a reforming role for China, whereby it would reshape the international order from inside instead of challenging or overthrowing the international order from outside.
Security Studies, 2008
ABSTRACT
Ethics & International Affairs
As part of the roundtable “International Institutions and Peaceful Change,” this essay focuses on... more As part of the roundtable “International Institutions and Peaceful Change,” this essay focuses on the “Kindleberger trap,” a term coined by Joseph Nye Jr. referring to the situation in which no country takes the lead to maintain international institutions in the international system. President Trump's destructive policies toward many international institutions seem to push the current international order to the brink of the Kindleberger trap. Ironically, China has pledged, at least rhetorically, to support and even save these existing international institutions. Based on an institutional-balancing perspective, we suggest that the worry about the Kindleberger trap is unwarranted because the international institutional order will not easily collapse after the decline of U.S. hegemony. Institutional competition among great powers and institutional changes within the institutional order have become two remedies to maintain international institutions and to avoid the Kindleberger tra...
Chinese Scholars and Foreign Policy
Asian Security Studies, 2007
Health Policy and Planning, 2022
Evidence shows that infectious disease outbreaks are not gender-neutral, meaning that women, men ... more Evidence shows that infectious disease outbreaks are not gender-neutral, meaning that women, men and gender minorities are differentially affected. This evidence affirms the need to better incorporate a gender lens into infectious disease outbreaks. Despite this evidence, there has been a historic neglect of gender-based analysis in health, including during health crises. Recognizing the lack of available evidence on gender and pandemics in early 2020 the Gender and COVID-19 project set out to use a gender analysis matrix to conduct rapid, real-time analyses while the pandemic was unfolding to examine the gendered effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This paper reports on what a gender analysis matrix is, how it can be used to systematically conduct a gender analysis, how it was implemented within the study, ways in which the findings from the matrix were applied and built upon, and challenges encountered when using the matrix methodology.
The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 2021
Revisionism is an important concept in international relations discourse, and it is especially pr... more Revisionism is an important concept in international relations discourse, and it is especially prevalent in discussions about relations between China and the United States in the context of a possible power transition. Yet, this concept has until recently not received the systematic research attention that it deserves. We present in this essay different strategies that a revisionist state may pursue. It builds on recent scholarship by other colleagues and is drawn from a larger project of ours to study revisionism historically and develop it conceptually. We argue that military conquest and subversion—or in our terminology, hard revisionism—have become less likely in today’s world compared to the past. Instead, different approaches of soft revisionism intended to advance institutional changes should be given more attention. We provide a typology of these soft revisionist strategies and offer examples from recent Chinese and US conduct to illustrate them.
How China Sees the World, 2019
In this chapter, we first discuss the existing research on China’s public opinion and foreign pol... more In this chapter, we first discuss the existing research on China’s public opinion and foreign policy and suggest that the general, public-targeted survey research faces three analytical weaknesses. We then introduce our unique “opinion survey and textual analysis” approach, which integrates survey research techniques and traditional textual analyses of Chinese international relations (IR) scholars’ writings. We argue that our book makes two contributions to the study of China’s international relations. On one hand, we fill an intellectual gap in the study of Chinese IR scholars’ perceptions of international relations in the 2010s through a unique analytical approach integrating opinion surveys and textual analysis. On the other hand, through the eyes of Chinese IR scholars, we make sense of what Chinese policy makers may think about the world.
Global Public Health, 2021
Gender norms, roles and relations differentially affect women, men, and non-binary individuals' v... more Gender norms, roles and relations differentially affect women, men, and non-binary individuals' vulnerability to disease. Outbreak response measures also have immediate and long-term gendered effects. However, gender-based analysis of outbreaks and responses is limited by lack of data and little integration of feminist analysis within global health scholarship. Recognising these barriers, this paper applies a gender matrix methodology, grounded in feminist political economy approaches, to evaluate the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and response in four case studies: China, Hong Kong, Canada, and the UK. Through a rapid scoping of documentation of the gendered effects of the outbreak, it applies the matrix framework to analyse findings, identifying common themes across the case studies: financial discrimination, crisis in care, and unequal risks and secondary effects. Results point to transnational structural conditions which put women on the front lines of the pandemic at work and at home while denying them health, economic and personal securityeffects that are exacerbated where racism and other forms of discrimination intersect with gender inequities. Given that women and people living at the intersections of multiple inequities are made additionally vulnerable by pandemic responses, intersectional feminist responses should be prioritised at the beginning of any crises.
Nature, 2020
W omen are affected more than men by the social and economic effects of infectious-disease outbre... more W omen are affected more than men by the social and economic effects of infectious-disease outbreaks. They bear the brunt of care responsibilities as schools close and family members fall ill 1,2. They are at greater risk of domestic violence 3 and are disproportionately disadvantaged by reduced access to sexual-and reproductive-health services. Because women are more likely than men to have fewer hours of employed work and be on insecure or zero-hour contracts, they are more affected by job losses in times of economic instability 2. There has been a "horrifying global surge in domestic violence" since the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns, said United Nations secretary-general António Guterres in early April. Malaysia, for example, reported 57% more calls to domestic-abuse helplines between 18 March and 26 March. Moreover, sexualand reproductive-health clinics are closing worldwide. Some US states have restricted access to abortions 4. It is all too familiar. During outbreaks of Ebola and Zika viruses in the past few years, The social and economic impacts of COVID-19 fall harder on women than on men. Governments need to gather data and target policy to keep all citizens equally safe, sheltered and secure.
Asian Perspective, 2008
... Modern social democracy sup-ports the reform of capitalism democratically through state regul... more ... Modern social democracy sup-ports the reform of capitalism democratically through state regulation in ... Economic development as the precursor of political liberalization strengthens the aspira-tions and ... China's historical search for democracy in the early twentieth century failed. ...
The Pacific Review, 2020
A review of studies of China's foreign policy reveals three dominant methods: the area studies ap... more A review of studies of China's foreign policy reveals three dominant methods: the area studies approach, the IR theory method, and the integrated approach. We suggest that it is time to pay close attention to an emerging research program focusing on the study of Chinese international relations (IR) scholars, especially their internal debates, as a new venue to understand China's foreign policy. Although Chinese IR scholars are normally quoted as valuable sources in the study of Chinese foreign policy in general, there is no systematic study of China's IR scholars per se. In order to transform the study of Chinese IR scholars to a full-fledged research program, researchers need to pursue theoretical innovations on the relationship between different types of IR scholars and foreign policy inquiries, advance multi-method research designs across the different methods of field interviews, textual analysis, and opinion surveys, as well as encourage international collaboration between Chinese scholars and non-Chinese scholars.
China's Challenges and International Order Transition introduces an integrated conceptual fra... more China's Challenges and International Order Transition introduces an integrated conceptual framework of "international order" categorized by three levels (power, rules, and norms) and three issue-areas (security, political, and economic). Each contributor engages one or more of these analytical dimensions to examine two questions: (1) Has China already challenged this dimension of international order? (2) How will China challenge this dimension of international order in the future?
The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 2019
The establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) signified China's 'charm off... more The establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) signified China's 'charm offensive' towards multilateral institutions and existing global financial governance. If the rise of China is inevitable, what will the future world look like, and what should other countries be prepared for? Borrowing insights from institutional balancing theory and role theory in foreign policy analysis, this project introduces a 'leadership transition' framework to explain policy dynamics in global governance, with the AIIB as a case study. It suggests that China, the United States, and other countries have employed different types of institutional balancing strategies, i.e. inclusive institutional balancing, exclusive institutional balancing, and inter-institutional balancing, to compete for influence and interest in the process of establishing the AIIB. A state's role identity as a 'leader', a 'challenger', or a 'follower' will shape its policy choices in global governance regarding different institutional balancing strategies in the process of 'leadership transition.' Institutional balancing is a new type of balancing among states in the future transformation of global governance. China's institutional rise in global governance, therefore, might be more peaceful than widely predicted.
Globalization and Health
Background During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, states were called upon by the World Healt... more Background During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, states were called upon by the World Health Organization to introduce and prioritise the collection of sex-disaggregated data. The collection of sex-disaggregated data on COVID-19 testing, infection rates, hospital admissions, and deaths, when available, has informed our understanding of the biology of the infectious disease. The collection of sex-disaggregated data should also better inform our understanding of the gendered impacts that contribute to risk of exposure to COVID-19. In China, the country with the longest history of fighting the COVID-19 infection, what research was available on the gender-differential impacts of COVID-19 in the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic? Methods In this scoping review, we examine the first 6 months (January–June 2020) of peer-reviewed publications (n = 451) on sex and gender experiences related to COVID-19 in China. We conducted an exhaustive search of published Chinese and English l...
International Affairs, 2022
Most research on status in international politics focuses on a state's ‘trait status’, define... more Most research on status in international politics focuses on a state's ‘trait status’, defined by valued attributes that a state possesses, but ignores the importance of ‘role status’, which is constituted through state interactions and competent practices in world politics. By integrating prospect theory and role status scholarship, this article introduces a ‘status-saving’ argument to shed light on how states adopt risk-acceptant strategies to salvage the decline in their role status in world politics. We test the status-saving argument by examining the ASEAN states’ bold community-building efforts in the early 2000s, especially the adoption of the ASEAN Charter in 2007. We argue that both the economic and political conditions of ASEAN were far from mature enough to pursue such an institutionalization and legalization endeavour. The perceived decline of international role status after the 1998 Asian financial crisis, however, encouraged the ASEAN states to take this ‘great lea...
The South China Sea Disputes, 2017
It is too early to worry about China's Monroe Doctrine. Asian countries need to think about how t... more It is too early to worry about China's Monroe Doctrine. Asian countries need to think about how to deal with its new Nixon Doctrine in the near future. Commentary THE "MONROE Doctrine" is gaining popularity in both scholarly and policy discourses on Asian security. Specifically, scholars and pundits are warning that China will adopt its own "Monroe Doctrine" to dominate Asia and "kick America out." China has simultaneously faced standoffs in the East China Sea and South China Sea, engaged the United States and Russia geopolitically, and showed a tough stand toward Hong Kong.
How China Sees the World, 2019
This chapter provides a comprehensive assessment of what Chinese international relations (IR) sch... more This chapter provides a comprehensive assessment of what Chinese international relations (IR) scholars think about China’s power. We find that that most Chinese IR scholars hold a seemingly contradictory but realistic view of China’s capabilities in the international system. Although they are optimistic about China’s rise, they do not perceive a rapid decline of the United States in the foreseeable future, nor do they envision China overtaking the United States in terms of its economic, military, political, cultural, and comprehensive power. In addition, Chinese IR scholars do not perceive a confrontation between China and the outside world. Instead, they advocate a reforming role for China, whereby it would reshape the international order from inside instead of challenging or overthrowing the international order from outside.
Security Studies, 2008
ABSTRACT
Ethics & International Affairs
As part of the roundtable “International Institutions and Peaceful Change,” this essay focuses on... more As part of the roundtable “International Institutions and Peaceful Change,” this essay focuses on the “Kindleberger trap,” a term coined by Joseph Nye Jr. referring to the situation in which no country takes the lead to maintain international institutions in the international system. President Trump's destructive policies toward many international institutions seem to push the current international order to the brink of the Kindleberger trap. Ironically, China has pledged, at least rhetorically, to support and even save these existing international institutions. Based on an institutional-balancing perspective, we suggest that the worry about the Kindleberger trap is unwarranted because the international institutional order will not easily collapse after the decline of U.S. hegemony. Institutional competition among great powers and institutional changes within the institutional order have become two remedies to maintain international institutions and to avoid the Kindleberger tra...
Chinese Scholars and Foreign Policy
Asian Security Studies, 2007
Health Policy and Planning, 2022
Evidence shows that infectious disease outbreaks are not gender-neutral, meaning that women, men ... more Evidence shows that infectious disease outbreaks are not gender-neutral, meaning that women, men and gender minorities are differentially affected. This evidence affirms the need to better incorporate a gender lens into infectious disease outbreaks. Despite this evidence, there has been a historic neglect of gender-based analysis in health, including during health crises. Recognizing the lack of available evidence on gender and pandemics in early 2020 the Gender and COVID-19 project set out to use a gender analysis matrix to conduct rapid, real-time analyses while the pandemic was unfolding to examine the gendered effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This paper reports on what a gender analysis matrix is, how it can be used to systematically conduct a gender analysis, how it was implemented within the study, ways in which the findings from the matrix were applied and built upon, and challenges encountered when using the matrix methodology.
The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 2021
Revisionism is an important concept in international relations discourse, and it is especially pr... more Revisionism is an important concept in international relations discourse, and it is especially prevalent in discussions about relations between China and the United States in the context of a possible power transition. Yet, this concept has until recently not received the systematic research attention that it deserves. We present in this essay different strategies that a revisionist state may pursue. It builds on recent scholarship by other colleagues and is drawn from a larger project of ours to study revisionism historically and develop it conceptually. We argue that military conquest and subversion—or in our terminology, hard revisionism—have become less likely in today’s world compared to the past. Instead, different approaches of soft revisionism intended to advance institutional changes should be given more attention. We provide a typology of these soft revisionist strategies and offer examples from recent Chinese and US conduct to illustrate them.
How China Sees the World, 2019
In this chapter, we first discuss the existing research on China’s public opinion and foreign pol... more In this chapter, we first discuss the existing research on China’s public opinion and foreign policy and suggest that the general, public-targeted survey research faces three analytical weaknesses. We then introduce our unique “opinion survey and textual analysis” approach, which integrates survey research techniques and traditional textual analyses of Chinese international relations (IR) scholars’ writings. We argue that our book makes two contributions to the study of China’s international relations. On one hand, we fill an intellectual gap in the study of Chinese IR scholars’ perceptions of international relations in the 2010s through a unique analytical approach integrating opinion surveys and textual analysis. On the other hand, through the eyes of Chinese IR scholars, we make sense of what Chinese policy makers may think about the world.
Global Public Health, 2021
Gender norms, roles and relations differentially affect women, men, and non-binary individuals' v... more Gender norms, roles and relations differentially affect women, men, and non-binary individuals' vulnerability to disease. Outbreak response measures also have immediate and long-term gendered effects. However, gender-based analysis of outbreaks and responses is limited by lack of data and little integration of feminist analysis within global health scholarship. Recognising these barriers, this paper applies a gender matrix methodology, grounded in feminist political economy approaches, to evaluate the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and response in four case studies: China, Hong Kong, Canada, and the UK. Through a rapid scoping of documentation of the gendered effects of the outbreak, it applies the matrix framework to analyse findings, identifying common themes across the case studies: financial discrimination, crisis in care, and unequal risks and secondary effects. Results point to transnational structural conditions which put women on the front lines of the pandemic at work and at home while denying them health, economic and personal securityeffects that are exacerbated where racism and other forms of discrimination intersect with gender inequities. Given that women and people living at the intersections of multiple inequities are made additionally vulnerable by pandemic responses, intersectional feminist responses should be prioritised at the beginning of any crises.
Nature, 2020
W omen are affected more than men by the social and economic effects of infectious-disease outbre... more W omen are affected more than men by the social and economic effects of infectious-disease outbreaks. They bear the brunt of care responsibilities as schools close and family members fall ill 1,2. They are at greater risk of domestic violence 3 and are disproportionately disadvantaged by reduced access to sexual-and reproductive-health services. Because women are more likely than men to have fewer hours of employed work and be on insecure or zero-hour contracts, they are more affected by job losses in times of economic instability 2. There has been a "horrifying global surge in domestic violence" since the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns, said United Nations secretary-general António Guterres in early April. Malaysia, for example, reported 57% more calls to domestic-abuse helplines between 18 March and 26 March. Moreover, sexualand reproductive-health clinics are closing worldwide. Some US states have restricted access to abortions 4. It is all too familiar. During outbreaks of Ebola and Zika viruses in the past few years, The social and economic impacts of COVID-19 fall harder on women than on men. Governments need to gather data and target policy to keep all citizens equally safe, sheltered and secure.
Asian Perspective, 2008
... Modern social democracy sup-ports the reform of capitalism democratically through state regul... more ... Modern social democracy sup-ports the reform of capitalism democratically through state regulation in ... Economic development as the precursor of political liberalization strengthens the aspira-tions and ... China's historical search for democracy in the early twentieth century failed. ...
The Pacific Review, 2020
A review of studies of China's foreign policy reveals three dominant methods: the area studies ap... more A review of studies of China's foreign policy reveals three dominant methods: the area studies approach, the IR theory method, and the integrated approach. We suggest that it is time to pay close attention to an emerging research program focusing on the study of Chinese international relations (IR) scholars, especially their internal debates, as a new venue to understand China's foreign policy. Although Chinese IR scholars are normally quoted as valuable sources in the study of Chinese foreign policy in general, there is no systematic study of China's IR scholars per se. In order to transform the study of Chinese IR scholars to a full-fledged research program, researchers need to pursue theoretical innovations on the relationship between different types of IR scholars and foreign policy inquiries, advance multi-method research designs across the different methods of field interviews, textual analysis, and opinion surveys, as well as encourage international collaboration between Chinese scholars and non-Chinese scholars.
China's Challenges and International Order Transition introduces an integrated conceptual fra... more China's Challenges and International Order Transition introduces an integrated conceptual framework of "international order" categorized by three levels (power, rules, and norms) and three issue-areas (security, political, and economic). Each contributor engages one or more of these analytical dimensions to examine two questions: (1) Has China already challenged this dimension of international order? (2) How will China challenge this dimension of international order in the future?