Review of Ho-fung Hung (ed.)’s China and the Transformation of Global Capitalism

In 2006, when the panel at the American Sociological Association that eventually gave rise to this volume took place, the world and China’s place within it seemed a slightly different place than it is today. Now, as most of the developed world pursues a largely-self inflicted crisis of austerity following the crisis of under-regulation, China’s forward progress towards a high-level of economic development seems less certain and the social stresses of transformation and increasing labour market agitation and protest threaten the stability and rule of the Communist Party.

Read the full review here.

Review of Storey’s Southeast Asia and the Rise of China

My review of Ian Storey’s Southeast Asia and the Rise of China: The Search for Security has been published in the Journal of International and Global Studies, Vol.4, No.2 (November, 2012), pp.115-6.

Read the full review here.

What Is a Para-State?

A para-state is a discrete piece of territory wholly or partly within another  recognized state that is run according to different policies and laws than the  official state. The idea comes largely from Maoist strategy.

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China’s Malacca Straits Conundrum

In common with other East Asian states such as Japan and the Republic of Korea, China lacks oil and gas resources in its  own territory. There may be some reserves available in the South China Sea but  it is far from clear what level of reserves, if any, that there will be, as well  as which of various states making claim to the region will be proven to be  legally permitted to exploit them.

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Review of Sirin Phathanothai’s The Dragon’s Pearl

In the years following the end of the Second World War and the victory of the Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War, the threat of Communist insurgency was very real across Southeast Asia. For those countries which, like Thailand, wished to remain steadfastly a member of the capitalist west, yet had a longstanding relationship with China and many millions of ethnic Chinese residents, the situation was complex.

Read the full review here.

Review of O’Brian’s The Road to Samarcand

Back to the 1930s and a freshly orphaned American teenager is taken on to a schooner by his uncle, who is seeking a way to return the boy to civilization (they are currently located in the South China Sea) so that he can take up an educational career suitable for a young member of the bourgeoisie. Alas, a typhoon blows up and all must take refuge on land, where the merry band (supplemented by large, partially-housetrained Swedish sailor, scholar wannabe Chinese cook, enormous species non-specific dog, and others) soon become embroiled in a series of adventures: Russian spies, Chinese warlords, Tibetan monks, Mongol nomads, the Yeti – all of human life is here.

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Is There a China Threat?

When people talk about a ‘China threat,’ they are usually talking in security or  military terms and this too will be the basis of this article. In terms of  economic threat, the entry of China into the capitalist world has had the effect  of contributing to spreading capitalism to every part of the world and to  intensifying the creative destruction that is characteristic of that system.

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Invest SEA

My short trip to Hong Kong to attend the Invest SEA seminar has finished and from my point of view was quite successful – I gave my paper about Chinese investment in the Mekong Region and was not booed off the stage or subjected to criticism. So that is good.

The conclusions of the workshop were many – from 11 papers (only nine of which were actually given), a wide range of points emerged in terms of the scale of investment (e.g. micro, corporate and macro), strategic (emergent or deliberative) and outcome (positive, negative, too soon to tell and so forth). My point, echoed by others, that where conflict was accompanying Chinese investment was really the effect of the spread of capitalism and the conversion of existing primitive market conditions (I use the term ‘feudal’) into more advanced capitalist relations received some support. A lot of what is going on in parallel or shadow state spaces, which are no longer governed by state governments, is a form of ‘cowboy capitalism’ or ‘wild west capitalism.’ Discussions are due to continue as to how this set of papers will, if at all, be published – I am hopeful of something quite substantial emerging but we shall see.

Anyway, I was only there for a couple of nights and, since it ws raining almost non-stop, had very little time to walk about the city for sightseeing. Anyway, this is the view of the city from my room in the Royal Plaza Hotel.

I did pop out briefly on Thursday evening across the Prince Edward East Road to look at the bird market and the flower market. Here is a photo of some budgies in a cage:

There were also some other birds hanging around, including some sea birds and a version of what we call here the Oriental Robin Magpie. So, here are some sparrers:

I also had a quick look at the flower market, by which time it was starting to rain again and so I did not really hang around. This is one view of the aforementioned flower market:

The Peaceful Rise of China

China’s political leaders regularly reassure the world and their own people that the rise of the Chinese state, which is one of the most important and central political issues taking place in the world today, will be entirely peaceful in nature. They point to the fact that China has not made any attempt to expand its borders beyond what is commonly understood to be Chinese territory for the best part of a thousand years. Where the borders have changed, for example in Tibet, this it is argued is because Tibet is historically considered by the Chinese to be an inseparable part of the country.

Read the full article here.

Review of Anderson’s The Rebel Den of Nung Tri Cao

Author James Anderson, a faculty member at the University of North Carolina, introduces his topic suggesting that one of most important issues in the contemporary political economy, the impact of the rise of China, may have some light shed upon it by the study of an eleventh century Vietnamese rebel and his subsequent reception on both sides of the mountainous Sino-Vietnamese border. After all, the rebel, Nung Tri Cao (whose name should have a couple of accents it is not possible for me to recreate in html) existed in the conceptual and geographical space between two significant powers – the Chinese and Dai Viet thrones – and sought not just to create a state of his own but to legitimize himself and his efforts with respect to recognition from the Chinese emperor.

Read the full review here.