The Rise Of China And Its Impact On China’s Foreign Policy Towards Regional Organizations

The main discussion in the international relations field since the 1990 s have been focused on the rise of China.As China has become a major power in global politics,some concerns have been raised about the future of world affairs if China continues to rise for the next three or four decades,as predicted by many reputable organizations in the world.There are two main arguments within scholars and international political analyst in response to the rise of China.Firstly,China’s rise will give significant impact to international order which have been led by US since the collapse of Soviet Union in the earlier of 1990 s.Some even believes,China might try to challenge US dominance and if possible,overtake US position as global superpower and change the western liberal order that been existed since the end of World War II.For others,instead of bring threat to an existing international order,China’s rise will bring more opportunity for greater cooperation amongst state in our planet.In response to this phenomenon those who believe China’s rise pose a threat to existing order led by the U.S.argue that the U.S and its ally should constraint China before this happen to avoid China to become more powerful.The latter,those who believe China’s rise offer more room for cooperation than a threat underlined that constraint China’s is not an option,instead,the U.S and its ally should support China’s rise.The battle ground for the U.S and its ally to constraint China to become more powerful nations is Asia Pacific region.As written in many articles and journals by some international relations scholars that China’s rise will affect the Asia-Pacific region in wrong direction because it will make the Asia-Pacific region a battle ground for the U.S and its allies against China.Since then,China threat theory,which has been publicly supported by numerous western scholars in response to China’s expanding influence in the Asia-Pacific region,has been a source of concern for policymakers in various nations.Chinese leaders,then,apply a new strategic policy in the region in order to counter so called China threat theory.The new China strategic approach characterized by its "good neighborhood" policy.Under this new foreign policy,China changes it approach with the ASEAN members countries.Asean members countries responded positively on this new foreign policy.Given the fact that during the Cold War era,some ASEAN members countries were seen China as a external threat to their political system,because most ASEAN countries were taking on the U.S side(prodemocracy values)against Soviet Union(communist bloc).It not takes so long for China to normalize its relationship with Indonesia,Singapore and others members.China’s diplomatic approach to the ASEAN regions has had a significant impact on lowering the level of mutual mistrust between government officials and academics in the ASEAN member states.Since then,China-ASEAN relations has improved greatly through regional cooperation mechanism and bilateral relations.China – ASEAN relations since mid-1990 s can be characterized by Increased economic,political,and social engagements on the one hand,and limited progress in the military and security arenas on the other hand.When Hu Jintao became Chinese President in 2002,China’s role and contribution to the global economy were growing significantly.Slowly but surely,China began to expand economic cooperation with many countries.A year before,China has joined WTO following 15 years of accession negotiations.China active participation in many regional and global cooperation mechanism has boosted its economy growth.As a result,in 2010,China overtakes Japan position as world second largest economic power behind the U.S.Having this condition,academic and public debates on the impact on China’s rise still remain as a hot topic.In 2012,Xi Jinping took a leadership from Hu Jintao to became Chinese President.Chinese under Xi Jinping’s proactively promoted multilateral and regional cooperation.With regard to ASEAN,President Xi Jinping continues to support ASEAN centrality and promote solidarity and cooperation in the region.My dissertation,therefore,will focus on China’s foreign policy towards ASEAN under Hu Jintao’s Period(2002–2012)and Xi Jinping’s Period(2012–2017).I will elaborate former Chinese Paramount leader Hu Jintao’s concept of peaceful development and current leader Xi Jinping’s Community with a shared future for mankind for mankind.In doing so,my research questions will be focused on the significance and implications of the rise of China on its foreign policy and the implementation of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence in its relations with ASEAN.As China is ongoing process to retake its position as great powers,it is important to know how far and consistent Chinese leaders to keep its promise to avoid any intention to became hegemonic power or pose a threat to its neighboring countries,in particular with regard to its relations with ASEAN.Argument on this dissertation is that China threat theory,which believes that the international system will be jeopardized as a result of China’s rise,is not applicable in the Asia international relations.China’s Peaceful Rise and the Community of a Shared Future for Mankind,introduced by Presidents Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping and incorporated into China’s foreign policy,imply the contrary.Progress in Sino-ASEAN relations in the past 40 years shows that China has been consistent in maintaining regional peace and stability despite some unresolved territorial issues with several ASEAN countries.Apart from that,the economic growth of China has benefited ASEAN and vice versa.Since Hu Jintao’s Period,China’s foreign policy toward ASEAN countries has been a success to convince ASEAN member states to engage more deeply with China in many cooperation frameworks and has been continued under Xi Jinping’s Periods.Furthermore,ASEAN leaders praised China’s commitment to supporting ASEAN centrality and encouraging mutually beneficial cooperation to achieve regional peace and stability.This research employs qualitative research methods as a tool in analyzing China’s Foreign Policy towards ASEAN as regional institution.In doing so,I employ social constructivist approach to explain why China’s reapproach to ASEAN has been successful in strengthening its relations with ASEAN countries.My dissertation focuses on how norm and identity been applied under the concept of peaceful development and community of shared future for mankind and contributes to strengthen China-ASEAN relations.As result,China and ASEAN also have signed many agreements and still working to deepen it relations in many fields.Data collection for this research based on primary sources such as government documents,articles,and research reports to conduct in-depth analysis.Secondary sources are also an important part of my empirical research and testing of my claims that China’s rise is not a threat to ASEAN countries.This research will be significant to give an alternative view on China’s foreign policy.In particular how China’s behavior with its neighbor’s country when its influences in economy and politic much stronger than it was in 1990 s.What I find on this dissertation is China neither a threat nor a challenger to the U.S position in existing international order.Instead,China since Hu Jintao’s Period and continue under Xi Jinping’s Period keep its foreign policy not to act as hegemony power or pose threat to other countries in the regions.In addition,in regional and global level,China has play significant role in facilitating and supporting multipolarity.For instance,under Xi Jinping’s Period,China has launched Belt and Road Initiative with the goals to boost intra-regional economic growth that will be benefited to all nations along the road.Apart from that,President Xi Jinping has also proposed Community of shared future for mankind.With main goal is to establish a better world for all countries based on mutual trust,equality and win-win cooperation.My dissertation will be divided into 6 chapters.The first chapter will provide a brief overview of China’s rise and foreign policy toward ASEAN,as well as research questions,the argument,research methodology,and a literature review.In the second chapter I will explain a theoretical framework that I employs to analyse China’s foreign policy towards ASEAN.As I argue that norms and identity has play significant role in China’s reapproach to ASEAN after the end of the Cold War,these two concepts will be discussed in this chapter.As primary focus on my dissertation is China’s foreign policy towards ASEAN,the theoretical approach employed in its analysis is social constructivist.Social constructivist introduced concept of norms and identity by scholars Wendt,Acharya etc.On chapter 3,I analysed Hu Jintao’s Period Foreign Policy towards ASEAN during his tenor from 2002 – 2012.On the First section,I will discuss on the foreign policy notions of Hu Jintao’s Period,in particular his consistency to support multipolarity and maintaining regional stability that has been promoted by Chinese leaders since 1990 s.Furthermore,China’s rise has also compelled Chinese Leaders,Chinese scholars and academics circle to devise a grand strategy for the country’s foreign policy.The objective is to ensure that China’s rise proceeds as planned and that foreign policy can adapt to the evolving global political landscape.Chinese scholars’ views in China’s foreign policy and the concept on Peaceful Development and Harmonious World will also be discussed on this section.Second section will be focused on Hu Jintao’s foreign policy towards ASEAN during his leaderships from2002-2012.The last section will explain how norms and identity and their implication to China’s foreign policy towards ASEAN.From Hu Jintao’s Period,we may understand that China has committed to supporting ASEAN initiatives to develop regional cooperation and maintain regional stability.One example of this would be the Joint Declaration on the China-ASEAN Strategic Relations.Apart from that,China also the non-first ASEAN member to sign Treaty of Amity,Cooperation in Southeast Asia in 2003.This section also will prove that China,as emerging power,always respect ASEAN sovereignty under the principle of non-intervention and promote Chinese’s identity as peace loving country.In chapter 4,I discussed President Xi Jinping’s Period foreign policy towards ASEAN in his first term leaderships.I elaborated foreign policy notion of President Xi’s.foreign policy in firs section.I divided this section into three subsection.First subsection I started on Community With a Shared Future of Mankind.President Xi.The concept that President Xi proposed to the regional and global forum as Chinese vision for prosperous and global peace and stability.This section focused on what kind of strategic interest that China keen to pursue in its global affairs.In order to know domestic audiences views on President Xi’s Community with a shared future for mankind visions,Chinese scholars view on this idea will be discussed on this section.The second subsection is Major Country Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristic,the idea from President Xi Jinping to promote the Chinese’s nation character to the world in its diplomatic interactions.The third subsection discuss President Xi idea on A New Type of major Country Relations.As we know,the idea of to propose this framework to reconceptualize Sino-American ties.My point of this idea is that Chinese side wishes to dispel western scholars arguments that a clash between the US as a great power and China as a rising power is likely to occurs in foreseeable future.This ide proposes a new model of China-US relations based on transparency,equality and win-win cooperation.President Xi’s global infrastructure development initiative namely Belt and Road Initiative is discussed in fourth subsection of this chapter.As Chinese global vision in economic field,Chinese government emphasize that BRI is an international cooperation based on the principles of mutual benefit,inclusiveness,equality,openness and Chinese side will not make BRI’s an instrument to control domestic economy system or have the intention to transform the political system of the countries participating in the BRI’s project.Despite critics and scepticism by some analyst,BRI has attract many countries to participated on this project.The second section on this chapter is focused on Xi Jinping’s foreign policy towards ASEAN and time chosen is from 2012-2017 also divided into 2 subsection.On the first subsection,I started by discussing a proposal that President Xi Jinping mentioned during his state visit to Indonesia in 2013.As known before,when delivering his remarks,in Indonesian Parliament in October 2013,President proposed an idea to build China-ASEAN Community With A Shared Future For Mankind.Since its first announced,many analyst has joined the conversation to debate what kind of strategic initiative that China wants to achieve in its relations with ASEAN by proposing this idea.I then discuss norms and identity in China’s Foreign Policy towards ASEAN in the last subsection.I described why I came into conclusion that norms and identity has plays significant role in Chinese foreign policy making process.Chapter 5 will be discussed the opportunities and challenges faced by China’s Foreign Policy towards ASEAN.As both side in the many occasions has firmly commit to strengthen its ties,there are some aspects has to be concerned by both China and ASEAN in order to maintain peace and stability in the region.First section will discuss the opportunities that China and ASEAN can work together to strengthen their ties.It will cover economy aspect and political and security aspect that China and ASEAN have been engaged since a few decades ago.On political and security cooperation,I will focus on non-traditional security cooperation as important element that can contributed to maintain peace and stability in the region.The second sections will discuss internal and external challenges that China might face in its relations with ASEAN.Internal challenges mainly came from ASEAN members states political instability that always effects on many aspects including economy.External challenges is coming from the US foreign policy goals to undermine China’s influence in the Southeast Asia regions.this is an important elements that both China and ASEAN may need to dealing with.I then offer three suggestions for how China and ASEAN may cooperate to develop shared perspectives in order to prevent any misunderstandings in how they react to regional and global issues.Chapter six is a conclusion and the last chapter of my dissertation.This chapter will be divided into three sections.In first section,I will be answering my research question based on evidence that I find on this research and review a key finding of this dissertations.I will also present the reader with some concluding remarks on China’s foreign policy towards ASEAN and how far social constructivist theory,in particular norms of the principle non-interference norm and Identity,can be applied to understand why China succeeded in approaching ASEAN after the cold war,even though during the cold war era,Sino-ASEAN relations were not as close as they are today.The second section is a main finding of this dissertation and the last section is a theoretical debate by which I make a conclusion on the debate whether China’s rise pose a threat to our globe or offer more room for cooperation to other countries all over the planet.