Fractured China
How State Transformation Is Shaping China's Rise

Explains how state transformation processes–the fragmentation, decentralisation and internationalisation of China's party-state–shape China's external relations.

Lee Jones (Author), Shahar Hameiri (Author)

9781009048460, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 October 2021

280 pages, 7 b/w illus. 12 tables
22.9 x 15.1 x 1.7 cm, 0.46 kg

'fascinating … powerful... a breath of fresh air, providing rich empirical data and analytical sophistication' Jane Hayward, Critical Asian Studies

Is China's rise a threat to international order? Fractured China shows that it depends on what one means by 'China', for China is not the monolithic, unitary actor that many assume. Forty years of state transformation – the fragmentation, decentralisation and internationalisation of party-state apparatuses – have profoundly changed how its foreign policy is made and implemented. Today, Chinese behaviour abroad is often not the product of a coherent grand strategy, but results from a sometimes-chaotic struggle for power and resources among contending politico-business interests, within a surprisingly permissive Chinese-style regulatory state. Presenting a path-breaking new analytical framework, Fractured China transforms the central debate in International Relations and provides new tools for scholars and policymakers seeking to understand and respond to twenty-first century rising powers. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in China and Southeast Asia, it includes three major case studies – the South China Sea, non-traditional security cooperation, and development financing–to demonstrate the framework's explanatory power.

Introduction
1. State transformation and Chinese foreign policy
2. State transformation and the South China Sea
3. Chinese non-traditional security governance in the greater Mekong subregion
4. China's International development financing
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], International relations [JPS], Constitution: government & the state [JPHC]