Soft Balancing Against The U.S. In Northeast Asia;an Analysis Of Cooperation Between China And Russia(2013-2018)

This paper analyzes the causes underlying the increased cooperation between China and Russia in Northeast Asia.The researcher argues that this analysis s uggests there is a soft balancing strategy to check U.S.military unilateralism in Northeast Asia underpinning this trend.This paper examines the cooperation be tween China and Russia in the Northeast Asia region from 2013 in the areas of diplomacy,economic relationships and military ties.This study aims to explain how and why this trend of active cooperation has developed in recent years.F rom the international political point of view,this paper argues that the external variable of the U.S.played an important background role in the active develop ment of bilateral cooperation between China and Russia in Northeast Asia in th e years since 2013.This can be seen as an effort to balance against the hegem onic power of the U.S.But,unlike the prevailing forms of realism,which regar d military alliances as highly important,this paper argues that in Northeast Asia,China and Russia are developing soft balancing strategies that are centered on diplomacy,economic cooperation and limited military coordination.Few countries welcome the military expansion of a foreign hegemonic powe r in their own front yard.This is no less true of China and Russia.These Nort heast Asian countries are two of the world’s leading powers and often have sta nces that differ from the U.S.on assortment international issues.A key motivat or for the growing cooperation between China and Russia in Northeast Asia is likely to be a shared desire to check the unilateralism of the U.S.,an approach known in international politics as the “balance of power”.But there are two important facts that need to be noted here.The first is th e overwhelming military power of the United States.The balancing usually stres sed in balance of power theory is hard balancing.Hard balancing refers to stric tly military balancing among states that seek to challenge a hegemonic power.I n other words,the challenger countries balance the military strength of the hegemonic power by enhancing their own collective military standing through cooper ation in an alliance system or other forms of military buildup.The balance of power was a useful framework for interpreting international affairs among 18 th and 19 th century European countries,and the argument that peace is maintained through military balance between countries was also good for explaining the C old War between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 20 th century.B ut after the collapse of the Soviet Union,American military power in the intern ational community has become so unmatched that no country can realistically h ope to directly counter it.The combined defense budgets of other major countri es are less than that of the United States,which has a state-of-the-art military t hat spans the globe.The possibility of an alliance between countries to counter the hegemony of the U.S.itself has been overshadowed by its impracticality.This means that conventional realism is no longer sufficiently capable of explai ning international society.Second,China and Russia are not allies but are a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination.” China and Russia are great powers on the world stage and both possess formidable militaries.Although it would not be on equ al footing with U.S.military strength,an alliance between the two countries co uld in itself pose a threat to U.S.regional hegemonic ambitions.Therefore,Rus sia and China have been strengthening relations by establishing a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination instead of seeking an outright alliance.Mil itary exchanges between the two countries are limited in comparison to the coo peration seen between allies,but their achievements in foreign and economic ar eas are outstanding.China and particularly Russia have been emphasizing multil ateralism in diplomatic areas,thus checking U.S.attempts to act unilaterally.Th ese circumstances make it hard to explain the Sino-Russian relationship through the framework of conventional realism,particularly offensive realism.As a result,while the cooperation between China and Russia may seem to r eflect the existing balance of power theory,this relationship is in fact very diff erent.The question of how to make sense of this is the starting point for this paper.Soft balancing theory provides a better understanding of the relationship between China and Russia within the international system.The distinctive qualit y of soft balancing is that in this approach the challenger countries counter thehegemonic power through non-military means.These non-military measures incl ude the international system,diplomacy and economic strategies.Some definitio ns allow for the inclusion of limited military cooperation between the challengin g countries.Pape and Paul,who first put forward the theory of soft balancing,analyze d the relationship between China and Russia as examples of soft balancing.A variety of follow-up studies have also been conducted on the subject.Unfortuna tely,however,existing research is mainly focused on China and Russia’s cooper ation in Central Asia rather than Northeast Asia,and more recent research is al so lacking.This paper also attempts to supplement the limitations of existing theory and research.As mentioned earlier,the researcher assumes that a soft balancing str ategy underpins the cooperation between China and Russia.The aim of this app roach is to check U.S.military unilateralism in Northeast Asia.To prove this h ypothesis,this paper looks at China-Russia cooperation in terms of diplomatic,economic and limited military cooperation.Due to a number of constraints,the scope of this study is limited to events that have taken place since 2013.There are three reasons why 2013 was chosen.First,during this period,the United States attempted to expand its influence in Northeast Asia through the “Pivot to Asia” strategy.Second,the international situation surrounding Northeast Asia ha s worsened as North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations have intensified.Third,cooperation between the two countries has entered a new stage with the replacement of political leaders from China and Russia.From this analysis,the researcher has concluded that China and Russia have adopted a soft balancing approach targeted at the United States in Northeast A sia along three main dimensions.First,in diplomatic terms,China and Russia h ave effectively kept the United States in check through cooperation on the Kore an Peninsula.In five short years,the leaders of the two countries have met al most 30 times.The volume of visits between these major world leaders,roughl y once every two months,is fairly unprecedented.This paper examines the res ults of the meetings between the leaders of the two countries based on official documents from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.The paper concludes t hat the two countries are continuing to take different international strategies than the U.S.,such as multilateralism and non-interference in domestic affairs.The same is true of the Korean Peninsula.China and Russia have used a three-sta ge roadmap to check U.S.military unilateralism on the Korean Peninsula.The r oadmap includes room for U.S.participation,but it still refuses to partake.Chin a and Russia have consistently emphasized roadmaps at international and bilater al meetings,resulting in delays in U.S.policy toward North Korea.Ever since the U.S.decided to deploy the THAAD system on the Korean Peninsula,China and Russia have continued to express their opposition to its deployment throug h vice-ministerial security talks.From a soft balancing point of view,China and Russia have increased U.S.diplomatic costs by strengthening diplomatic cooper ation in the Korean Peninsula.Second,China and Russia have succeeded in reducing their dependence on t he United States through economic cooperation.This has been largely achieved through three main frameworks: regional cooperation,BRI-EEU links,and energ y cooperation.The researcher has collected notes relevant to all three types of high-level exchanges related to cooperation.The years since 2013 have seen e ven more frequent exchanges between the two countries.Their first expo was h eld in 2014 and the Eastern Economic Forum opened in 2015.Soft balancing t heory states that a regional economic bloc can keep hegemony in check.China and Russia,of course,have not yet built economic blocs in Northeast Asia.H owever,if the two countries pursue multilateral economic cooperation,and,parti cularly if those ventures include South Korea,North Korea and Japan,the influ ence of China and Russia in Northeast Asian would increase considerably.That is why the non-economic implications of economic cooperation between the tw o countries cannot be ruled out.In the arena of energy cooperation,China can overcome the Malacca dilemma through cooperation with Russia,whereas Russi a can mitigate the harm of U.S.sanctions resulting from the Ukraine crisis.Third,China and Russia have attempted to check the expansion of U.S.mili tary influence in Northeast Asia through limited military cooperation.Although i t is not alliance-level cooperation,the two countries have steadily pushed for jo int military training and the exchange of weapons and equipment.In particular,it should be noted that China and Russia’s regular maritime exercises,ongoing since 2012,are subtly linked to the timing of U.S.military expansion in Northeast Asia.To summarize,China and Russia have responded to the expansion of U.S.military influence in Northeast Asia with a form of soft balancing.China and Russia have attempted to check unilateral U.S.policy toward North Korea by l obbying for a diplomatic solution based on a three-step roadmap.In addition,b ehind the active economic cooperation between the two countries is the commo n denominator of the potential challenges posed by the United States.If China and Russia include North Korea within a multilateral economic cooperation fram ework,China and Russia will have greater influence in Northeast Asia.Lastly,t his variety of military cooperation should be classified as a type of soft balanci ng,not hard-balancing.The most important reason for this classification is that China and Russia are not currently official allies.The two countries continue to stress that the joint naval exercise is not aimed at a third country.This can b e seen as an effort to minimize provoking the United States.