Over the past three decades, East Asia has seen more peaceful and stable than at any time in history. After the Chinese economic reform in December 1978 led by Deng Xiaoping, China has rapidly emerged as a major regional power, averaging over nine percent economic growth per year. Multinational corporations have flocked to invest in China, and China-made products have begun to flood all over the world. China is modernizing its military, has joined numerous regional and international institutions, and plays an increasingly visible role in global affairs. From a neo-realist perspective, rising China will be a destabilizing force in the region, and China cannot rise peacefully. However, David C. Kang provides alternative arguments to depict the flaws in contemporary views of China and a new understanding of East Asian politics. Kang believes that constructivism seems a better paradigm to describe the contemporary politics in East Asia. In the following paragraphs, I will explain Kang's arguments for the rise of China and the views of South Korea, Southeast Asian states and Japan toward China and my opinions on the book.
Kang's arguments attack the neo-realist's Euro-centrism, ahistorism, and the balance-of-power model cannot describe China's foreign policy toward its neighbors, and vice versa. Kang challenges that the rise of a great power is always a destabilizing geopolitical phenomenon which is based on the European or Western experience and is irrelevant to the East Asian context. Therefore, he chooses to review the history of East Asia from 1300 until the present and concludes that a strong and dominant China had historically been a driving force for stability. He also reviews the relations between China and the major countries in the region and concludes that East Asian countries generally are not worried about the rise of China and thus choose to accommodate rather than balance a rising China. It is because China, unlike Japan, has never sought to utilize its dominant position to colonize its neighbors. With the exception of Taiwan and to a certain extent Japan, Most East Asia states view China's reemergence as the gravitational center of East Asia more as an opportunity than a threat, and they are rapidly strengthening cultural, economic, and diplomatic cooperation with China to take full advantage of this quickly emerging situation. Most Asian states view their economic inter-dependence with China as a positive factor that will enable the rise of China to be mutually beneficial. Kang highlights the rise of China has created a huge market for its neighbors, facilitating their economic development. In fact, based on the notion that China poses no military threat and that it seeks to prosper economically along with its neighbors, East Asian governmental regionalism has grown dramatically in the past few decades such as the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area and the Chiang Mai Initiative. In response to this growth, their foreign policies are more aligned with China than the United States. The U.S. diplomatic and military presence in East Asia has significantly diminished with the regional rise of China. They believe that a strong China stabilizes East Asia, while a weak China tempts other states to try to control the region.
South Korea has a long history of close and stable relations with China. China has rapidly become an extremely important economic and diplomatic partner for South Korea. The most important foreign policy of South Korea is unification of the divided peninsula, and this has led the South Korea to prioritize economics engagement with North Korea. It is more important than pressuring the North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Both China and South Korea agree that engagement is the proper strategy to deal with North Korea. On the other hand, the U.S. focuses on eliminating North Korea's nuclear and missile programs through a strategy of coercion and isolation. There is little evidence that South Korea will attempt to balance China, and even less evidence that South Korea fears China. South Korea seems more worried about potential Japanese militarization than about Chinese militarization. South Korea shows no signs of security fears of regarding China, and even willing to let China take the lead on solving the North Korea nuclear problems. In fact, Chinese trade and investment into North Korea outstrips South Korea. Without Chinese cooperation, attempting to solve the nuclear problems in North Korea will be difficult.
Southeast Asia also has a long history of stable relations with China. The member states of the ASEAN and China have similar views about respecting sovereignty and about noninterference in national matters. The tight military alliance that exist between the United States, Japan and South Korea are absent in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia is ethnically more integrated with China than Northeast Asia. Southeast Asia's integration with China is as much as a result of the web of ethnic Chinese throughout Southeast Asia who have rapidly reestablished their historical trade and investment relationships with China. These ethnic links are weaving Southeast Asian and Chinese economics and societies tightly together. China's unwillingness to take advantage of the Asian financial crisis of 1997 .Southeast Asian states viewed China as a responsible actor in the region. China did not devalue its currency at the time, and this was interpreted by ASEAN as a sign of goodwill. Southeast Asian states see their economics future as heavily influenced by China's economy, and trade and investment between ASEAN and China has been rapidly increasing. The Spratly islands can be seen as the most likely source of conflict in the region. However, the possibility is low because the Spratly dispute is primarily one of boundary setting and the resolution of previously undemarcated boarders among all Southeast Asian states rather than a case of Chinese expansion. Southeast Asian states do not fear Chinese use of force, and their militaries are mainly focused on border control and internal defense
Japan is the country in the region that has the material capability to challenge China, and Japan remains the most skeptical East Asian country regarding China. However, Japan has shown little desire or capacity to lead East Asia. Japan only attempted to be dominant in East Asia when China was weak. When China has been strong, Japan has not challenged it. Over the past century, Japan's international political role did not keep up with its economic development. Japan failed to translate its economics advantage into regional political leadership or sustain goodwill with its neighbors. Also, Most East Asian countries do not expect Japanese leadership in the region because the Japanese expansion in the Second World War. Japan is willing to ally with the United States since the Second World War. It shows that Japan will not challenge a dominant, stable power. When China surpasses Japan as the second largest economy in 2010, Japan realizes and accepts that China may eventually dominate the region.
My opinions on the book are that Kang underestimates the uncertainty experienced by China's neighbors and the influence of the United States in East Asia under the Obama Administration. The general situation he provides may have been more accurate in 2003. However, in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, I believe that the United States will pay more attention to East Asia. I believe that the changes in U.S. foreign policy toward China will change the dynamic of East Asian politics. Also, Kang should not underestimate the continued attractiveness of the United States as a business and security partner in East Asia for many of the nations Kang writes about such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines. More importantly, Southeast Asia states, Japan and South Korea also want to avoid a zero-sum choice between either China or the United States. They hope for a situation in which they benefit from a rising Chinese economic power but also continue to maintain good relations with the United States.
David Kang has written a well-researched and well-written study of China's rise and its impact on the nations of East Asia. This book is probably one of the best examples to show the optimistic view of a rising China in twenty-first century. Kang's research shows how East Asian states have grown closer to China. Rising powers present opportunities as well as threats, and the economic benefits and military threat China poses for its regional neighbors are both potentially huge. However, East Asian states see substantially more advantage than danger in China's rise, making the region more stable, not less. Although East Asian states do not absolutely welcome China in all areas, they are willing to defer judgments regarding what China wants and what its role in East Asia will become.
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