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Since the implementation of the reform and opening-up policies by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, China has undergone a series of rapid changes that have turned it into a great power with prospects for global leadership. Its rise has not only opened up the possibility that, for the first time in the last two centuries, a non-Western country could once again rise to the top of the international order. The changes in China over the past four decades have also refuted a considerable number of assumptions and arguments held from different angles of the social and political sciences. This paper will analyze how the rise of China has debunked some of the main paradigms and theories in the field of International Relations, democratization, and globalization. The present study concludes that the multidimensional implications of China's rise were not, to a large extent, anticipated by some of the mainstream theories of these disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The crippled economic and political reform in China has come with two schools of thought: the new-left and nationalism. The new-left focuses on domestic issues, while nationalism tackles more international relationships. This paper explores the effects of radical nationalism on China's democratization process. It argues that if nationalism takes the dominant position in China's political process, Chinese reform will go astray. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2011, Myanmar has undertaken a series of domestic and foreign policy reforms, including democratisation and peacebuilding, before and after the watershed November 2015 elections in the country. These reform processes have called into question whether China, which has been Myanmar's dominant great power neighbour throughout the previous era of military government in the country formerly known as Burma, would find its strategic position eroding as Myanmar further opens to the international community. However, the concept of China 'losing' diplomatic ground to other actors, including the West, in Myanmar implies a zero-sum game that does not adequately address Beijing's still-formidable geostrategic presence vis-à-vis its southern neighbour. China has now started to implement a more multi-faceted, 'resilience network'-building approach to maintaining its special status in Myanmar's foreign policy, a situation which will persist as Myanmar continues its uncertain path towards further reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. liberal strategic culture has created an ideational framework for central policy elites to view and interpret the role of the United States vis-à-vis other states or actors in international politics. Since the end of WWII, Washington has sought to spread and construct a liberal international order based on free trade, multilateral institutions, and competitive democracy. By the same token, Washington endeavors to remake China in America's own image, by transforming the mainland into an open and democratic polity. Such normative commitment has, to a great extent, shaped America's interests and policy response toward China and Taiwan, as illustrated by Truman's "Titoist" policy toward the PRC in 1949 and the inception, following Nixon's rapprochement with Beijing, of the three Sino-American Joint Communiques, the Taiwan Relations Act, and Reagan's Six Assurances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with bilateral relations between India and Myanmar. It argues that the current transformation processes offer a unique opportunity for a major readjustment of India's foreign policy towards Myanmar. In taking on India's perspective, it assesses the history, current state of and prospects for the relationship between New Delhi and Naypyidaw in six policy areas: democratization and stability; security in India's Northeast region and illegal migration; trade and infrastructure; energy security; development cooperation; and the role of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-democratic regional powers are increasingly blamed for authoritarian backlashes in formerly democratising countries, or for the persistence of entrenched autocratic regimes in their neighbourhood. Yet there is a striking scarcity of theoretical deliberations as to why powerful autocracies should prefer autocratic neighbours over democratic ones. Employing a rational-choice model that links foreign policy behaviour to the logic of domestic politics, this article develops a theoretical argument why, and under which circumstances, autocratic regional powers should be expected to attempt to impact upon governance structures in their regional environment. Combining a political economy perspective with findings from transition literature, the authors conclude that, all else equal, autocratic regional powers have strong incentives to favour similar political systems in nearby states, but that this interest must be weighted against an overarching interest in political stability. The article discusses these theoretical findings against the backdrop of country cases in the regional environments of Russia and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rise entails a potentially threatening increase in its political and military power. Adherents of 'democratic peace theory', however, see cause for optimism: the economic development accompanying China's ascendance might have a pacifying effect on Chinese foreign relations. Unfortunately, in China's case this hope is probably unfounded. Some of China's most prickly foreign policies, including its unwillingness to accept postwar Japan as a 'normal' nation and its insistence that Taiwan must eventually unify with China regardless of the wishes of Taiwan's inhabitants, are already 'democratic' in the sense that most of China's people endorse them. Chinese public opinion has become a powerful influence on foreign-policymaking, and one that sometimes pushes Beijing toward conflict even when China's leaders would prefer conciliation. Democratisation in China would not immediately remove the sources of tension between the Chinese and the other Asia-Pacific democracies, and China's neighbours must understand that on some issues the Chinese government must meet compelling domestic expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how Hong Kong has exercised political influence on China since the transfer of sovereignty in 1997, and tries to comprehend such seemingly impossible influences by reinterpreting the concept of sovereignty. It argues that the British Hong Kong existed as a 'reference society' for China's modernization and helped to change Chinese perceptions of capitalism. As this resulted in Chinese recognition of the legitimacy of Hong Kong's colonial institutions, which were featured with political legacies of civic freedom and the rule of law, it also reveals the institutional dimension of sovereignty. Secondly, the information flow from Hong Kong to China reflects a communicative (in contrast to coercive) nature of sovereignty, which highlights Hong Kong's central position in the Chinese world of information. Thirdly, Hong Kong's ongoing democratization challenges Chinese authoritarianism through societal interactions that are beyond state control. Conceptually, in this article, state sovereignty is argued as being something fluid and constantly reshaped in everyday practice with institutional, informative, and interactive dynamics; practically, it attempts to find some remaining 'silver lining' to the growing authoritarian Chinese clouds above Hong Kong as reversing the logic of examining external factors in democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can states that mistrust each other as much as the Peoples' Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan reach unification agreements? Unification agreements are most feasible when one of two conditions holds: the unification bargain does not independently erode the bargaining power of the weaker state, or the more powerful state can commit credibly not to use its increased bargaining power to restructure the agreement ex post. Our argument accounts for two historical cases - the nineteenth century Argentine and German unifications - and helps to explain why the PRC has found it difficult to make progress on achieving a peaceful bargain with Taiwan. We describe several possible future scenarios for cross-Strait relations and show that democratization in the PRC is not a necessary prerequisite for a unification agreement between the mainland and Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on developments of democratization, endogenous and incremental changes in the political institutions of the authoritarian regime which are gradually forming unclear but necessary checks and balances against the ruling party's monopoly of power in China. Accordingly, the third wave of global democratization has left untouched several East Asian autocracies that are experiencing rapid economic growth in Asian countries. Under the authoritarian rule, the components of political institutionalization include a modest rule of law, the forming of representative institutions, and the expansion of local autonomy.