East Asian Countries’ Responses To Rising China:Opportunities And Challenges For China

Nowadays, with the rapid development of Chinese economy, Rising China becomes a hot word among media, politicians, businessmen, and scholars.Although Rising China has been studied broadly and deeply, neighboring countries’responses to Rising China are comparatively neglected. As a systemetic subject, the study of Rising China shuld not only concentrate on its effect toward the region or the whole world, but also stress the responses of the neighboring countries.The thesis does research on East Asian countries’responses to Rising China, which explores into their economic and military responses, attitudes toward regional integration and global governance, as well as the public image of Rising China. Their similar responses cover economic pragmatism and worries about the high economic reliance upon Chinese economy, restraint engagement with China in regional integration, manipulation and restraint toward China in the affairs of global governance, opposition to being domanated by any global or regional power. Meanwhile,their different responses range from bandwagoning via active hedging and hesitant hedging to balancing. The public image of Rising China in these neighboring countries is mainly effected by media, NGOs, and academic institutions,which is in general positive,even that in Japan and South Korea show some kind of negtive trend. The public in these neighboring countries realize the positive significance of Rising China toward the regional stability and prosperity.The thesis argues that these countries responses are affected by two types of variables: retional variables and cognitive variables. The former includes exchange cost and the exchange degree beween their own society and China, while the latter covers their attribution style when dealing with controversial affairs and their perceptive degree of treating China as a threat. In essence, their responses to Rising China indicate their recognition degree to Rising China in different areas. Firstly, as for the space recognition, these countries have all kinds of territorial disputes,economic and resource competition.Secondly, speaking of the institutional recognition, they,on the one hand,wish China can play an important or leading role in the restructure of current international order; on the other hand, they attempt to restraining China by means of different institutions in the process of regional integration. Thirdly, it is lacking some kind of internal identity recognition of Rising China, that is, these countries have no confidence of the model of China development, including Chinese economic,political military and social model.As for the responses of east Asian neighboring countries toward Rising China, it is a double-edged sword for China. The opportunities are relatively positive public image of Rising China.Meanwhile the deplomatic policy in these countries are still not be determined by public opinion. Additionally, there are no concensus of balancing China and regional arms race in the current East Asia. The challenges includes three poionts:variation of their reliance upon Chinese economy, increasing deplomatic uncertainity toward China, Gulliver style restraint to Rising China.After Word War Two, the United States has been established its hegemony,based on three ideas:the idea of freedom and democracy, the idea of anti-totalitarianism, the idea of globalization, who in turn constructs a institutional hegemony. On the way to rise, China shoud learn these idea from the US. Of course, China has proposed its own idea-harmony, which not only tolerates all the above three ideas, but also transcends them. It is only the promotion of the idea of harmony that can help China deepen mutual trust with these countries and strenghthen their recognition to Rising China.