Pacific Affairs - Abstracts (Volume 76, Issue 3)

Fall 2003: Vol. 76, No. 3

ABSTRACTS

China and the North Korean Crisis: Facing Test and Transition

Ming Liu

Chinese interests in the Korean Peninsula can be summarized by the general goal of guaranteeing the smooth development of China's economic modernization and the policy of opening to the international community, stability in the Korean peninsula, and maintenance of good relations with both Koreas simultaneously. North Korea is usually seen as a buffer-zone for China, but now many Chinese see this as an outdated concept. Over the past two years the refugee and nuclear crises have tested China's policies toward North Korea. The growing number of North Korea refugees coming into China truly surprised Beijing. Beijing adopted multiple means, including a massive search for defectors and repatriating them to North Korea, but also allowing asylum seekers in the embassies to go to Seoul via a third country. The last approach seems a successful compromise. The recent nuclear crisis gravely endangers Chinese interests. To rein in this crisis, Beijing took a more proactive role than ever before, leading to trilateral talks among Washington, Beijing and Pyongyang, and the six-party talks adding Japan, South Korea and Russia. For various reasons, China significantly cut down its economic assistance from 1994-1995, consequently limiting its political influence on North Korea. However, Beijing has turned this curtailed support into an incentive to lure North Korea in to participating in some regional economic cooperation programs, promoting gradual reform based on the survival while abandoning its military-first strategy.

India and Russia: Reassessing the "Time Tested" Ties

B.M.Jain

This article examines some vitally important issues such as defence, strategic, scientific and technological and nuclear cooperation as well as Pakistan and China as factors, setting new trends, in Indo-Russian relations. It critically surveys how their "time-tested ties" in the 1970s and 1980s got a sudden jolt following the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. New Delhi-Moscow relations have oscillated from a steep decline in the beginning of the 1990s through a new political and strategic understanding in the mid1990s to a mutually "productive" and "enduring" partnership during the Putin administration. This paper argues that since India and Russia have no direct conflict of interest, their bilateral ties are likely to attain greater heights, especially in the defence and strategic fields, than what they had even during the Indo-Soviet friendship era. Besides, their identical perceptions of and approaches to critical issues such as multipolar world order, counter-terrorism, and cooperation in nuclear technology are likely to further solidify their ties based on mutual trust. However, Putin's regime coupled with pragmatism and flexibility attuned to serving national interests, cannot be taken for granted by India. Without being led by euphoria, India and Russia will need to accommodate each other's concerns, compulsions and interests for a friendly and durable relationship.

The Discourse of Unequal Treaties in Modern China

Dong Wang

This paper examines a symbol, bupingdeng tiaoyue (Unequal Treaties), that has received no attention in the current literature on the role of political ceremonies and symbols in China's national awakening and the formation of Chinese nationalism. This paper aims to repair this omission by tracing how the term acquired a strongly symbolic role and by analyzing the form, content, function and impact of the bupingdeng tiaoyue rhetoric.

First, this paper examins Chinese nationalism by looking at the discourse on the Unequal Treaties as employed by various forces in Chinese history. Second, the shared experience of the Guomindang (GMD)-Communists (CCP) with the Unequal Treaties reveals further details about a highly strained and precarious relationship in the United Front from 1924 to 1927. Part of the vocabulary, style, rhetoric and argumentation of the Unequal Treaties discourse became integrated as a perpetual element in the common inheritance of Chinese-ness. Third, the discourse on the Unequal Treaties alerts us to the continuing relevance of the subtle distinction between the political state and national culture, a distinction that both the GMD and the CCP have attempted to obliterate. Fourth, China's experience with the Unequal Treaties suggests that the spread and interpretation of international law can only take place on a particular nation's own terms. Fifth, this paper seeks to focus attention on China's positive role in the development and crystallization of international law against imposed treaties.

Sustainable Forestry in Thailand: The Effect of Agenda 21 on Forest-Related Non-Governmental Organizations

Matthew J. Mohlenkamp

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of the United Nations Agenda 21 on non-governmental organizations' (NGOs) efforts to promote sustainable forestry in Thailand. The author focuses on the impact of Agenda 21 on three main factors that influence NGO activity: the NGO relationship with international donors, the NGO relationship with the Thai government, and the direct impact of Agenda 21 upon NGO policies and actions. Agenda 21 includes goals aimed at countering the problem of global deforestation by increasing the use of sustainable forestry practices and increasing cooperation between governments and NGOs. However, the three areas examined in this paper indicate that Agenda 21 has had a small and uneven impact upon forest-related NGOs in Thailand.