Chengxin Pan | University of Macau (original) (raw)

Books by Chengxin Pan

The book demonstrates how the complex and transformative nature of China’s advancement is also a point of departure for theoretical innovation and reflection in IR more broadly. In doing so, the volume builds a strong case for a genuinely global and post-Western IR. It contends that ‘non-Western’ countries should not only be considered potential sources of knowledge production, but also original and legitimate focuses of IR theorizing in their own right.

By exploring the "China factor" in the North Korean human rights debate, this book evaluates the ... more By exploring the "China factor" in the North Korean human rights debate, this book evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of applying the Chinese development-based approach to human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The contributors to this book treat the relevance of the Chinese experience to the DPRK seriously and evaluate how it might apply to easing North Korean human rights issues.They engage with the debate about the relevance of the developmental or development-based approach to North Korea. In doing so, they problematise, scrutinise and contextualise the development-based approach in Northeast Asia, including China, and examine different responses to the developmental approach and the influence of domestic politics on these responses.

A valuable contribution to discussions on possible ways forward for human rights in North Korea and an insightful critique of the Northeast Asian development model more broadly.

Chinese edition of my book Knowledge, Desire and Power in Global Politics: Western Representation... more Chinese edition of my book Knowledge, Desire and Power in Global Politics: Western Representations of China's Rise, published by Social Sciences Academic Press (社会科学文献出版社）, June 2016

How is the rise of China perceived in the West? Why is it often labelled as ‘threat’ and/or ‘oppo... more How is the rise of China perceived in the West? Why is it often labelled as ‘threat’ and/or ‘opportunity’? What are the implications of these China imageries for global politics?

Taking up these important questions, this groundbreaking book argues that the dominant Western perceptions of China’s rise tell us less about China and more about Western self-imagination and its desire for certainty. Chengxin Pan expertly illustrates how this desire, masked as China ‘knowledge’, is bound up with the political economy of fears and fantasies, thereby both informing and complicating foreign policy practice in Sino-Western relations. Insofar as this vital relationship is shaped not only by China’s rise, but also by the way we conceptualise its rise, this book makes a compelling case for critical reflection on China watching.

Knowledge, Desire and Power in Global Politics is the first systematic and deconstructive analysis of contemporary Western representation of China’s rise. Setting itself apart from the mainstream empiricist literature, its critical interpretative approach and unconventional and innovative perspective will not only strongly appeal to academics, students and the broader reading public, but also likely spark debate in the field of Chinese international relations.

Journal Articles & Book Chapters by Chengxin Pan

China’s Rise and Rethinking International Relations Theory, 2022

East Asia: An International Quarterly, 2022

Once considered a bunch of “small islands in a far sea” by outside powers, the South Pacific now ... more Once considered a bunch of “small islands in a far sea” by outside powers, the South Pacific now looms increasingly large on the global geopolitical landscape, attracting the strategic attention of an array of great powers. This has prompted many scholars and commentators to focus on the rise of great power rivalry in the region. Yet, with few exceptions, the existing literature has paid little attention to how the regional dynamics are framed by the dominant narrative of great power politics in the first place and how as a result it has failed to adequately consider alternative voices, concerns and narratives from within the region. This Special Issue aims to tentatively address this neglect by questioning the unreflective narration of regional power dynamics as mere “great power politics” and by highlighting the competing narratives about this region and their policy implications for conducting relations between the South Pacific and “outside powers”. In doing so, it seeks to provide a new critical and self-reflective angle for the debate on the South Pacific. This article first examines the extent to which “great power politics” reflects the reality of the power dynamics in the South Pacific. It then explains why it is important to focus on the theme of narratives and to understand their socially constitutive role in producing knowledge and shaping reality. The third section briefly introduces the five articles in this Issue and outlines their contributions.

Australian Journal of Politics and History, 2021

Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 2021

The relational turn in International Relations (IR) has made important contributions by challengi... more The relational turn in International Relations (IR) has made important contributions by challenging the substantialist claim to substance/thing as ontological primitives, by drawing much-needed attention to relations as ontologically fundamental, and by introducing a diversity of relational
ways of being/becoming, knowing and doing. Yet, while rightly repudiating substantialism, the relational turn has remained ambivalent about the concept of substance itself, leaving open an important question: How should we understand substance within a relational ontology? As a result, we are left with different and sometimes confusing positions on the issue of substances vis-à-vis relations. Seeing this gap as a missed opportunity for relationalism in IR, this article seeks to bring substance back in without falling back into substantialism. It draws on a quantum conception of substance via the idea of quantum holography (QH) and its related notion of whole-part
duality, and stresses the little-understood dual and inseparable nature of substance-relation (‘relatance’). The concept of substance-relation duality not only enriches our relational thinking, but also allows us to engage in relational analysis through a reimagined notion of substance. To illustrate, the article turns to a substance-based relational analysis of US-China relations.

China and Human Rights in North Korea: Debating a “Developmental Approach” in Northeast Asia, 2021

Critical Studies on Security , 2021

Many Western countries, the perceived ‘zone of security’ in world politics, have failed miserably... more Many Western countries, the perceived ‘zone of security’ in world politics, have failed miserably in their COVID-19 responses. This ‘COVID-19 Westfailure’, this piece argues, has in large part to do, rather ironically,
with the very Western knowledge and practice of dividing the world into
zones of security and insecurity along some (often imagined) global
colour lines. The racialised politics of (in)security contributes to the
COVID-19 Westfailure on three levels. On the ontological level, it mistakes racialised Others for the source of a fundamentally non-racial and transnational threat. Methodologically, its adoption of often racist half-measures has proven largely ineffective. Epistemologically, epistemic racism fails to learn valuable lessons and experiences from its Others who are routinely viewed as civilisationally and scientifically inferior and backward. The pandemic, neither recognising nor operating along colour lines, has laid bare the limits and fallacies of Western racialised knowledge and practice of security.

European Journal of International Relations, 2020

This article stands at the intersection between the relational turn in International Relations (I... more This article stands at the intersection between the relational turn in International Relations (IR) and the quantum turn in the social sciences (and more recently in IR as well). The relational turn draws much-needed attention to the centrality of relations in global politics, yet its imprecise conceptualization of whole-part relations casts shadow over its relational ontological foundation. The quantum turn, meanwhile, challenges the observed–observer dichotomy as well as the classical views about causality, determinacy, and measurement. Yet, despite their common stance against the Newtonian ontology, the relational and quantum turns have largely neglected each other at least in the IR context. This article aims to bridge this gap by introducing a quantum holographic approach to relationality. Drawing on theoretical physicist David Bohm’s work on quantum theory and his key concepts about wholeness and the implicate order, the article argues that the world is being holographically (trans)formed: its parts are not only parts of the whole, but also enfold the whole, like in a hologram. This quantum holographic ontology contributes to both a clearer differentiation between internal/implicate relations and external/explicate relations and a renewed emphasis on wholeness and whole-part duality. In doing so, it not only provides new conceptual tools to rethink IR as holographic relations which involve the dynamic processes and mechanisms of enfoldment and unfoldment, but also has important policy and ethical implications for the conduct of “foreign” relations and for transforming the way we think about identity, survival, relationship, and responsibility.

Democratic Theory, 2020

Liberal democracies often include rights of participation, guarantees of protection, and policies... more Liberal democracies often include rights of participation, guarantees of protection, and policies that privilege model citizens within a bounded territory. Notwithstanding claims of universal equality for “humanity,” they achieve these goals by epistemically elevating certain traits of identity above “others,” sustaining colonial biases that continue to favor whoever is regarded more “human.” The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these fault lines, unveiling once more the often-hidden prevalence of inequalities that are based on race, gender, class, ethnicity, and other axes of power and their overlaps. Decolonial theories and practices analyze these othering tendencies and inequalities while also highlighting how sites of suffering sometimes become locations of solidarity and agency, which uncover often-erased alternatives and lessons.

Policy Studies, 2020

That the news media should operate as an impartial and responsible “fourth estate” in a democracy... more That the news media should operate as an impartial and responsible “fourth estate” in a democracy is a pervasive ideal, but there are serious obstacles – economic, organizational and political – to its achievement in practice. These obstacles, we argue, may be lower when an outlet reports on politics in another country, which is strategically allied to its own. And, for this reason, the quality of news coverage of that country’s politics may be higher in the reporting by foreign media outlets than in the reporting by domestic outlets. This article outlines the theory behind this conjecture and then examines it empirically through a content analysis of media representations of Donald Trump’s rise in two non-American outlets, The Australian and The Guardian. Their coverage, our analysis suggests, approximated fourth-estate ideals more closely than did the domestic coverage of Trump’s rise.

Review of International Studies, 2019

Soft power and hard power are conceptualised in International Relations as empirically and normat... more Soft power and hard power are conceptualised in International Relations as empirically and normatively dichotomous, and practically opposite-one intangible, attractive, and legitimate, the other tangible, coer-cive, and less legitimate. This article critiques this binary conceptualisation, arguing that it is discursively constructed with and for the construction of Self and Other. It further demonstrates that practices commonly labelled and understood as soft power and hard power are closely interconnected. Best understood as 'representational force' and 'physical force' respectively, soft and hard power intertwine through the operation of productive and disciplinary forms of power. We illustrate this argument by analysing the Sino-Japanese dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. Both governments exercise representational force in constructing their respective versions of events and Self/Other. The soft/hard power binary itself plays a performative role as the Self is typically associated with soft power and the Other with hard power. The operation of productive power, moreover, privileges the attractiveness of the former and the repellence of the latter, and disciplinary power physically enforces these distinctions on subjects in both states. Finally, reinforced Self/Other distinctions legitimise preparations for violence against the Other on both sides, thus exposing how fundamentally entangled soft and hard power are in practice.

Politics, 2019

The relationship between Chinese soft power and Chinese media has been a focus of a growing body ... more The relationship between Chinese soft power and Chinese media has been a focus of a growing body of literature. Challenging a resource-based conception of soft power and a transmission view of communication that inform much of the debate, this article adopts a discursive approach to soft power and media communication. It argues that their relationship is not just a matter of resource transmission, but one of discursive construction, which begs the questions of what mediated discursive practices are at play in soft power construction and how. Addressing these oft-neglected questions, we identify a typology of three soft-power discursive practices: charm offensive, Othering offensive, and defensive denial. Focusing on the little-understood practice of Othering offensive, we illustrate its presence in Chinese media through a critical discourse analysis of China Daily’s framing of Donald Trump and the United States, and argue that the Othering offensive in Chinese media that portrays Trump’s America as a dysfunctional and declining Other serves to construct a Chinese self as more responsible, dynamic, and attractive. Adding a missing discursive dimension to the study of soft power and the media, this study has both scholarly and practical implications for analysing a nation’s soft power strategy.

Global Media and Communication, 2019

The 2016 US presidential election, which brought Donald J. Trump to power, raised concerns that h... more The 2016 US presidential election, which brought Donald J. Trump to power, raised concerns that his ascendency could undermine US democracy promotion and enable illiberal regimes to resist calls for reform. This article seeks to hold this argument up to empirical scrutiny via a framing analysis of coverage of the US election in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). To some extent, the analysis supports the claim: throughout the election, the KSA media offered several substantive criticisms of democracy. However, Trump's campaign also served as a catalyst for a discussion about the merits of democracy, revealing some admiration for its key principles, and an acknowledgement of the challenges it faces in the 21st century.

Journal of Contemporary China, 2019

Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has exacerbated a longstanding concern about t... more Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has exacerbated a longstanding concern about the power shift from the West to China. The existing debate, however, is both motivated by, and fixated on, the strategic concerns of and about great powers (and to a lesser extent, middle powers). What is often overlooked is the concerns and voices of smaller countries and contested regions where some of the power-shift symptoms allegedly unfold, such as the South Pacific. To traditional donors such as Australia, the power dynamism in the South Pacific is largely a linear, two-way model of power shift from Western donors to Beijing. Challenging this model, this article proposes a complex, three-way model to bring small and seemingly passive actors into the power shift equation. To illustrate, the article uses Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) perceptions of China’s aid vis-à-vis Australia’s aid as a case study. Relying mostly on primary (interview) sources, this study not only reveals some nuanced attitudes of local actors toward the great-power interactions, but also highlights the hitherto neglected role and agency of Pacific Island nations and their domestic politics in the inherently complex power shifts.

Security Challenges, 2018

A valuable contribution to discussions on possible ways forward for human rights in North Korea and an insightful critique of the Northeast Asian development model more broadly.

China’s Rise and Rethinking International Relations Theory, 2022

East Asia: An International Quarterly, 2022

Australian Journal of Politics and History, 2021

Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 2021

China and Human Rights in North Korea: Debating a “Developmental Approach” in Northeast Asia, 2021

Critical Studies on Security , 2021

European Journal of International Relations, 2020

Democratic Theory, 2020

Policy Studies, 2020

Review of International Studies, 2019

Politics, 2019

Global Media and Communication, 2019

Journal of Contemporary China, 2019

Security Challenges, 2018

International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 2018

China’s rise, like the demise of the Soviet Union, is one of the defining events in the contempor... more China’s rise, like the demise of the Soviet Union, is one of the defining
events in the contemporary world. Yet, while the unexpected Soviet collapse and the end of the Cold War sparked the ‘Third Debate’ in
International Relations (IR) theory, it is puzzling that the rise of China
has yet to generate a comparable process of shell-shock and soul-searching among IR theorists. Just as the end of the Cold War is more
than simply the end of a bipolar power struggle per se, so too China’s
rise is much more than the familiar ascendancy of another great power.
Rather, it is also a complex, evolving and possibly border-traversing and
paradigm-shattering phenomenon in global life that, on the one hand,
requires fresh and innovative theorizing in and beyond IR and, on the
other hand, potentially offers new insights for us to rethink world politics more broadly. This article introduces this Special Issue that seeks
to tentatively respond to this theoretical, epistemological and ontological
challenge. It draws attention to the blind spot in IR theorizing on
China, and calls for deeper engagement between IR theory and China’s
rise that goes beyond mere ‘theory-testing’ within the existing perimeters
of mainstream IR.

International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 2018

The theoretical challenges for international relations (IR) posed by China’s rise cannot be adequ... more The theoretical challenges for international relations (IR) posed by China’s rise cannot be adequately addressed at a mere theoretical level. Predicated on a Cartesian/Newtonian ontology that assumes a mechanistic world made up of discrete, self-contained parts (e.g., sovereign nation-states), mainstream IR theories offer limited understanding of China’s rise. In this article, I propose an alternative, holographic relational ontology. Drawing upon recent IR scholarship on relational ontology and holographic ideas in quantum physics as well as traditional Asian thoughts, this ‘new’ ontology posits that the world exists fundamentally as holographic relations, in which a part is a microcosmic reflection of its larger whole(s). As a part of various wholes in global politics, ‘China’ is thus never an entity in and of itself, but holographic reflections of them. Its rise is best understood as a phenomenon of holographic transition, in which characteristics of those larger wholes are being enfolded into what is known as ‘China’. Thus, both the ‘China’ challenges and ‘China’ opportunities, rather than some inherently ‘Chinese’ properties, are products of China’s holographic relations. This ontology has broader conceptual and methodological as well as policy implications for IR in East Asia and beyond.

Journal of China and International Relations, 2018

Fudan American Review, 2016

“Global leadership” is one of the most important aspects in the self-identification of the United... more “Global leadership” is one of the most important aspects in the self-identification of the United States. Although American political elites may disagree over how to best exert America’s global leadership, it has been a longstanding consensus that the United States should and must defend its “global leadership.” Within this unquestioned consensus, however, there exist many misperceptions, such as the inevitability and indispensability of U.S. global leadership, and its benevolence and universal acceptance. By criticizing these misperceptions, this article argues that as a discursive construct, U.S. “global leadership” has had profoundly negative effect on U.S. foreign policy and in particular U.S.-China relations. Insofar as the U.S. continues to believe in the righteousness and necessity of its “global leadership,” China’s development will continue to be seen as a challenge to that leadership, making it difficult to build a new type of great power relationship between the two countries. The article argues that both the U.S. and China should forgo the myths of “global leadership,” and commit themselves to becoming a “responsible great power.”

The Indo-Pacific has been regarded as a new geopolitical reality, reflecting a power shift to Chi... more The Indo-Pacific has been regarded as a new geopolitical reality, reflecting a power shift to China and India, the associated great power competition and deepening economic links across the Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean regions. This chapter questions this assumed ‘naturalness’ of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ and illustrates how its ‘emergence’ has much to do with increasing anxieties in some quarters of the US, Australia, Japan and India about the ‘rise of China’ and its geopolitical ambitions. In this context, the ‘Indo-Pacific’ is not an innocent or neutral description but is a manufactured super-region designed to hedge against a perceived Sino-centric regional order. It is complicit in the (re)production of great power rivalries and regional security dilemmas, and it is thus important that the ‘Indo-Pacific’ construct be subject to critical re-examination and re-imagination.

The Interpreter (Lowy Institute for International Policy), 2018

In the past couple of weeks, two foreign ministers have captured the Chinese public imagination. ... more In the past couple of weeks, two foreign ministers have captured the Chinese public imagination. In a widely circulated video clip on the popular Chinese social media WeChat, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, Adel Al-Jubeir, is shown rebuking a Western journalist’s question about the “inherent” connection between the Islamic State (ISIS) and Islam. Another story involves Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s response to a Canadian journalist’s questions about China’s human rights. Both foreign ministers faced tricky questions from Western media (though in Wang Yi’s case, the questions were actually directed at his Canadian counterpart, Stéphane Dion), but that’s probably where their similarities end....

Now experts are plowing through the legal details of the ruling, but at the same time we should n... more Now experts are plowing through the legal details of the ruling, but at the same time we should not lose sight of the fact that the disputes have never been purely a legal or technical matter. Whether islands or not, those features in the South China Sea have long taken the meaning of being symbols of sovereignty, for all the claimants concerned. In China’s case, those symbols also remind the Chinese of their disastrous encounters with the Western imperial powers during the so-called “century of humiliation.” To the extent that these disputes are laced with competing historical memories, emotions, and national pride, no amount of arbitration, however decisive the results may seem, would be able to put the matter to rest.

At its core, neoconservatism is a broad and powerful discourse which is closely underpinned by tw... more At its core, neoconservatism is a broad and powerful discourse which is closely underpinned by two widely held and enduring ideas about the United States and the world around it: American virtue and American power. What defines neoconservatism is a largely unchallenged belief that the United States is a virtuous nation with a moral entitlement to superior power for the global good. Thus defined, neoconservatism gave rise to the Bush Doctrine, but the doctrine, which for many epitomizes the very essence of neoconservatism, was not the definitive neoconservatism. Making this distinction helps explain the longer and more mundane lineage of the present neoconservatism.

In January, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Despite his... more In January, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Despite his unpredictability so far, his performance in governing might be a bit easier to speculate on. And for his voters who are eager to see him delivering on his promises, disappointment may be in store.

International and Strategic Studies Report (No. 74), Center for International and Strategic Studies, Peking University, 23 November 2012

Copenhagen Discussion Papers, 2007

There has been a commonly held belief, especially in the United States, that Chinese business is ... more There has been a commonly held belief, especially in the United States, that Chinese business is distinctively Chinese. Understanding its Chineseness in unitary, monolithic and national terms, this assumption has both underpinned a zero-sum perspective on U.S.-China relations, and fuelled the China threat argument. This paper seeks to critically examine this essentialist construction of Chinese business and its foreign policy implications. Drawing on a global production network (GPN) approach, the paper argues that as well as exhibiting its Chinese characteristics, Chinese business is increasingly characterised by its transnationalness, which calls into question the coherence and unity of the Chinese economy. In this context, the American construction of China as a singular, threatening economic entity not only fails to capture the multiple, unstable identities of Chinese business and the complexities of U.S.-China relations associated with them, but often serves to inform simplistic, counter-productive and even dangerous China policy in the age of global interdependence.

Australian Book Review, 2019

Australian Journal of International Affairs, 67, no. 3 (2013), pp. 373-74.

The rise of China and its international implications have been subject to constant debate in the ... more The rise of China and its international implications have been subject to constant debate in the Western ‘China-watching’ community. Integral to this debate are two seemingly contrasting paradigms: the China threat and the China opportunity. Both paradigms reflect some contingent truth about China’s rise, yet ultimately neither can be seen as an objective description of a China ‘out there’. Rather, they are two particular, interrelated ways of constructing the Western self in terms of the modern knowing subject. With this appealing modern ‘self-discovery’, the West feels both an entitlement and a duty to know the world ‘as it is’. The ongoing quest for scientific certainty, which in turn is central to the continuation of the modern Western self-identity, is now increasingly frustrated by the uncertainty of China’s rise. To grapple with the China difference and uncertainty, many China observers resort, perhaps subconsciously, to some ‘emotional substitutes’ for certainty, such as fears and fantasies. Whereas fears help underpin the ‘China threat’ paradigm, fantasies give rise to various ‘China opportunity’ imageries. Together this powerful bifocal lens enables the West to be epistemologically reassured with the certain knowledge of either a threatening or a soothing scenario (or both) about China’s trajectory. With its profound scholarly and practical implications for China knowledge and Sino-Western relations, it is necessary to subject this dominant conceptual lens to critical analysis, not in primarily empirical and methodological terms, but on epistemological and ontological grounds.

Bringing together leading scholars from Asia and the West, this book investigates how the dynamic... more Bringing together leading scholars from Asia and the West, this book investigates how the dynamics of China’s rise in world politics contributes to theory-building in International Relations (IR). The book demonstrates how the complex and transformative nature of China’s advancement is also a point of departure for theoretical innovation and reflection in IR more broadly. In doing so, the volume builds a strong case for a genuinely global and post-Western IR. It contends that ‘non-Western’ countries should not only be considered potential sources of knowledge production, but also original and legitimate focuses of IR theorizing in their own right.

The National Interest, 2016

Amidst the antiestablishment fervor, one establishment characteristic of American politics and fo... more Amidst the antiestablishment fervor, one establishment characteristic of American politics and foreign policy is more likely than not to survive: neoconservatism.

The legal blow on the South China Sea ruling might actually lead China to harden its position.

Previously, stress responses in Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) selected for the absence or enhan... more Previously, stress responses in Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) selected for the absence or enhancement of aggressive and defensive behaviors toward humans (tame and aggressive behavior, respectively) were studied mainly to nonsocial factors, whereas data on the consequences of social stress induced, in particular, by interactions with conspecifics are scarce. As has already been shown, the above selection of Norway rats causes an attenuation or enhancement of intraspecific inter-male aggression. To find out whether the differences in aggressiveness are accompanied by hormonal changes, we addressed the dynamics of blood corticosterone and testosterone levels after inter-male aggression testing in tame, aggressive, and unselected rats bred in a vivarium for 7-8 generations as a reference. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of selection toward humans on agonistic interactions under conditions of an unfamiliar cage or neutral territory and on the subsequent dynamics of blood corticosterone and testosterone levels in tame, aggressive, and unselected rats. In our experiments, tame males, as compared to their aggressive or unselected conspecifics, demonstrated a longer attack latency, as well as a shorter duration and smaller number of patterns of aggressive behavior, approximating zero values. When tested on neutral territory, aggressive male rats were inferior to their unselected conspecifics in the total time of confrontations. More pronounced manifestations of aggression in unselected males compared to aggressive or tame animals arose against the background of elevated basal corticosterone levels and enhanced stress responsiveness to interacting with an unfamiliar male. At the same time, reduced aggressiveness of tame rats in the neutral territory test, as compared to unselected or aggressive animals, correlated with the lower testosterone level

On the face of it, if there are two countries that should have a reliably cordial bilateral relat... more On the face of it, if there are two countries that should have a reliably cordial bilateral relationship, they should be Australia and China. Sharing neither land nor maritime borders, the two countries are untroubled by high-stake territorial disputes that have often dogged China's relationships with some of its Asian neighbours. And perhaps no other two economies in the region are more complementary than those of China and Australia. ® Abundant raw materials in Australia have been fuelling the world's workshop. China, meanwhile, has been supplying Australian households with a wide variety of affordable manufactured goods. If all is needed for a cooperative relationship is shared material interests, then Australia and China could well lay claim to a special relationship. Yet back in 1999, then Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer cautioned that "We should not succumb to any false notions that we have some kind of ' special' relationship with China &quot...

Australian Journal of International Affairs, May 20, 2013

Knowledge, Desire and Power in Global Politics

In the past couple of weeks, two foreign ministers have captured the Chinese public imagination. ... more In the past couple of weeks, two foreign ministers have captured the Chinese public imagination. In a widely circulated video clip on the popular Chinese social media WeChat, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, Adel Al-Jubeir, is shown rebuking a Western journalist’s question about the “inherent” connection between the Islamic State (ISIS) and Islam. Another story involves Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s response to a Canadian journalist’s questions about China’s human rights. Both foreign ministers faced tricky questions from Western media (though in Wang Yi’s case, the questions were actually directed at his Canadian counterpart, Stephane Dion), but that’s probably where their similarities end. The focus of Chinese social media is on the stark contrast between the two foreign ministers’ handling of their respective situations.

New Regional Geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific, 2016

China’s Rise and Rethinking International Relations Theory, 2022

Australian Journal of Politics & History, 2021

One of the mysteries in contemporary world politics is why in recent years Australia has been lea... more One of the mysteries in contemporary world politics is why in recent years Australia has been leading the world in its hawkish approach to China, its largest trading partner. More than most of its allies, the Australian government seems to regard the China emergencyfuelled by threat perceptions ranging from foreign influence operations to economic coercionas more pressing than, say, climate change. This article extends and supplants existing explanations of this puzzle by providing a more theoretically oriented account. Situating Australia's China emergency in the context of its ontological (in)security, this article traces the rise of such insecurities and Australia's responses through the conceptual frameworks of state transformation and neoliberal governmentality, which together offer a more socially and historically grounded account of the dynamics of ontological (in)security. The article argues that the China emergency narrative, as a specific routinised form of neoliberal governmentality, both helps sustain Australia's dominant identity construction as a free, democratic, and resilient state, and provides a raison d'être for the national security state that has become part and parcel of the evolving techniques of neoliberal governmentality. The past few years have seen Australia gripped by a China threat emergency (hereafter referred to as the "China emergency"). Alarm bells have been constantly ringing over the purported danger of both a "silent invasion" by insidious and ubiquitous "Chinese influence" in the Australian body politic, 1 and Beijing's "grey-zone warfare" tactics including economic coercion and exploitation of Australia's domestic division. 2 The authors wish to thank Mark Beeson, James Laurenceson, David Walker, Jade Jia, and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful and constructive comments and feedback on earlier versions of this article. The usual disclaimers apply.

Journal of China and International Relations, 2018

Australia has a long but chequered history in its attempts to lift its Asia literacy. While the d... more Australia has a long but chequered history in its attempts to lift its Asia literacy. While the debate on the Asia literacy deficit has tended to focus on policy and resource matters as well as on schools, curricula, and students, this chapter argues that at the core of the issue are some particular ways in which Australia has imagined itself in terms, for example, of a far-flung outpost of Western civilisation that represents the champion of modernity, the end of History and the most valuable universal qualities the human race has to offer. Such self-imaginations have given rise to three modes of representation of Asia in the Australian national psyche: absence, threat and opportunity. In each mode, certain knowledge about Asia has already been assumed, including in the conception of the term ‘Asia literacy’ itself. It is such preunderstandings that set the limits for what and how much Australia can know about Asia, which I argue explains why Australia’s quest for Asia literacy has been ineffective or even elusive. Thus, this chapter calls for critical reflection on Australia’s self-identity and its little-understood role in the ‘Asia literacy’ predicament.