Between Revisionist and Status Quo: The Case of China’s Leadership in the AIIB
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18196/hi.72131Keywords:
China, revisionist, status quo, contested multilateralism, the AIIBAbstract
This article seeks to understand China’s foreign policy today by assessing its leadership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), using the scholarly term of ‘contested multilateralism’ coined by Julia Morse and Robert Keohane. We argue that since the beginning of the 21st century, China has managed to improve its image as a new global power through the transformation of its foreign policy. In expanding its political sphere, China is using not only peripheral diplomacy but also cross-regional diplomacy strategies through the existing bilateral and multilateral mechanisms. Within this context, we look at a specific case of the creation of the AIIB as evidence of China’s greater participation in the global political economy realm. The AIIB can be seen as how China practices multilateralism in its foreign policy as it is trying to meet domestic, regional, as well as global development and economic challenges. This article argues that the creation of AIIB is not only the implication of China’s fiscal and trade policy, nor merely to solve the regional infrastructure gap in Asia, but also to challenge the U.S. (and Japan) influence through the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in which China possesses minor political power to accommodate its political economic interests.
References
AIIB. (2017). Members and Prospective Members of the Bank. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Retrieved 10 December 2017 from https://www.aiib.org/en/about-aiib/governance/members-of-bank/index.html.
Bader, J. (2016). How Xi Jinping Sees the World … and Why. Asia Working Group Paper. Retrieved 4 December 2017 from https://www.brookings.edu/wpcontent/uploads/2016/07/xi_jinping_worldview_bader-1.pdf, No. 2.
Callaghan, M. & Hubbard, P. (2016). The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: Multilateralism on the Silk Road. China Economic Journal, Vol. 9(2).
Caporaso, J. (1992). International Relations Theory and Multilateralism: The Search for Foundations. International Organization, Vol. 46(3).
Chow, D. (2016). Why China Established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Vol. 49 (1255).
Christensen, T. (1996). Chinese Realpolitik. Foreign Affairs, Vol. 75(5).
de Búrca, G. (2016). Contested or Competitive Multilateralism? A Reply to Julia C. Morse and Robert O. Keohane. Global Constitutionalism, Vol. 5(3).
Fish, I. (2014). Is China Still a ‘Developing’ Country? Foreign Policy. Retrieved 9 December 2017 from http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/09/25/is-china-still-a-developing-country/
Hishida, M. (1994). Vaulting toward a Market Economy. Japan Review of International Affairs, Vol. 8(2).
Huiyun, F. (2009). Is China a Revisionist Power? Chinese Journal of International Politics, Vol. 2(3).
Johnston, A. (2003). Is China a Status Quo Power? International Security, Vol. 27(4).
Keohane, R. (1984). After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Keohane, R. (1990). Multilateralism: an Agenda for Research. International Journal, Vol. 45(4).
Kitano, M. (2011). China’s Foreign Strategy. Asia-Pacific Review, Vol. 18(2).
Lam, W. (2006). Chinese Politics in the Hu Jintao Era: New Leaders, New Challenges. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
Lanteigne, M. (2009). Chinese Foreign Policy: An Introduction. New York: Routledge.
Legault, G. (2015). AIIB Melding, Not Moulding Global Governance. East Asia Forum. Retrieved 10 December 2017 from http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2015/11/18/aiib-melding-not-moulding-global-governance/
Morse, J., & Keohane, R. (2014). Contested Multilateralism. The Review of International Organizations, Vol. 9(4).
Narlikar, A. (2010). New Powers in the Club: the Challenges of Global Trade Governance. International Affairs, Vol. 86(3).
Patrick, S. (2015). Multilateralism a la Carte: The New World of Global Governance. Valdai Papers, July, No. 22.
Patrick, S. (2015). The New “New Multilateralism”: Minilateral Cooperation, but at What Cost? Global Summitry, Vol. 1(2).
Ruggie, J. (1992). Multilateralism: the Anatomy of an Institution. International Organization, Vol. 46(3).
Saeki, K. (1995). The Rise of China: Threats, Uncertainties, and Opportunities. Asia-Pacific Review, Vol. 2(1).
Subacchi, P. (2015). The AIIB is a Threat to Global Economic Governance. Foreign Policy. Retrieved 12 June 2017 from http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/31/the-aiib-is-a-threat-to-global-economic-governance-china/
Summers, L. (2015). A Global Wake-Up Call for the U.S.? Washington Post. Retrieved 15 June 2017 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-global-wake-up-call-for-the-us/2015/04/05/ 6f847ca4-da34- 11e4-b3f2-607bd612aeac_story.html
Wang, M. (2016). The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: the Construction of Power and the Struggle for the East Asian International Order. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Weaver, C. (2015). The Rise of China: Continuity or Change in the Global Governance of Development? Ethics and International Affairs, Vol. 29(4).
Wong, S. (2016). China Launches New AIIB Development Bank as Power Balance Shifts. Reuters. Retrieved 10 December 2017 from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-aiib-investment/china-launches-new-aiib-development-bank-as-power-balance-shifts-idUSKCN0UU03Y
Yuqing, X. (2016). The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and China’s Role in Regional Economic Governance. East Asian Policy, Vol. 8(25), pp. 25-36. https://doi.org/10.1142/S1793930516000179
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
License
This journal is based on the work at journal.umy.ac.id/index.php/jhi under license from Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. You are free to:
- Share – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
- Adapt – remix, transform, and build upon the material.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms, which include the following:
- Attribution. You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- Non-Commercial. You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
- No additional restrictions. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Copyright
The author should be aware that by submitting an article to this journal, the article's copyright will be fully transferred to Jurnal Hubungan Internasional. Authors are allowed to resend their manuscript to other journals or intentionally withdraw the manuscript only if both parties (Jurnal Hubungan Internasional and Authors) have agreed on the issue. Once the manuscript has been published, authors are allowed to use their published article under Jurnal Hubungan Internasional copyrights.
All authors are required to deliver the agreement of license transfer once they submit the manuscript to Jurnal Hubungan Internasional. By signing the agreement, the copyright is attributed to this journal to protect the intellectual material for the authors. Authors are allowed to share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium and in any circumstances to give appropriate credit and wide readership to the work.
