Lanham; Boulder; New York; London: Lexington Books, 2017. xiii, 183 pp. (Tables, figures.) US$90.00, cloth. ISBN 978-0-7391-9856-8.
As China gains strength as a regional and global power, its bilateral relations with South Korea, one of seventeen countries to share a border with China, are more important than ever. Ye’s book contributes to the literature in a timely manner, and provides insights into maintaining stable bilateral relations. Ye observes the contrast between the two countries’ burgeoning economic ties and the dramatic ups and downs of their political relations, and questions what factors have brought “the arrival of a new stage of Sino-South Korean relations” (12). He first attempts to find connections between economic and political ties, and moves on in the latter part of the book to other factors that better explain the dynamics of Sino-South Korean relations.
In chapters 1 and 2, Ye examines the usefulness of interstate and intrastate levels of analysis, and more distinctively brings the “general public” variable into the discussion (11). The general public is an indispensable factor in his multidimensional model that builds on the well-known two-level game of Robert Putnam. Putnam’s “two-level game presumes intergovernmental contacts (the level-I game) as the only channel for interstate interactions” (33). On the other hand, Ye’s multidimensional model includes “societal actors (that) have effectively penetrated into the process of foreign policy making” of their own government as well as that of the other government (33). The author, therefore, introduces level III as the connection between domestic players and the other government, and further suggests a level IV, which directly connects people from each country.
In chapter 3, the author hypothesizes that economic ties result in closer bilateral relations, and tests this hypothesis on multiple levels: interstate diplomacy (i.e., level I), traditional public diplomacy (level III), and new public diplomacy (level IV). He concludes that integrated economies do not always help address political issues. The government-to-domestic players interaction (level II), meanwhile, is suggested in chapter 4 as a useful approach for finding the sources of so-called “soft clashes.” Soft clashes refer to cases such as that of North Korean refugees or controversies over history, that can have significant impacts on bilateral relations because they “mobilize societal players” on each side that compel their respective governments (92). The multidimensional model explains how these societal actors, not the government, lead soft clashes and influence the partner country’s government as well as its populace.
Ye admits, however, that the multidimensional model is not a perfect fit for all analyses, particularly on the formation of the China-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA) and for assessing the influence of external actors, such as North Korea and the US. In chapter 5, the author delves into the puzzle of “the extremely long process of their FTA formation” (117) and approaches this using a multistage and traditional two-level game model instead. He concludes that the conflicting goals of China and South Korea in various aspects of their economic and political leveraging were obstacles over more than a decade of CKFTA negotiation. In chapter 6, from the interstate point of view, the author discusses two external factors to the Sino-South Korea relations, North Korea and the US. Based on historical narratives, Ye concludes that China’s and South Korea’s different opinions on North Korea are issue-specific and less disruptive; on the other hand, the systemic changes in the balance of power between China and the US are dragging East Asia closer to a security dilemma (133). In his conclusion to chapter 7, the author reiterates that “the influence from governments on bilateral relations continues to decline” (143).
Ye’s research employs qualitative as well as statistical analyses using existing data sets such as GDELT (Global Data on Events, Location, and Tone) and self-collected data. The multidimensional model is supported by empirical analysis and expands the discourse from government-to-government relations to a four-level game that includes nonstate actors. The author’s conceptualization of the new public diplomacy sheds light on how the South Korean general public influences the Chinese government and how the Chinese general public reaches out to the South Korean government, and lastly, how people-to-people interactions occur. If the “nonofficial tie seems to be more volatile” compared to interstate or traditional public diplomacy (64), then the two-level game or the traditional public diplomacy would not be a suitable analytic tool to explain the evolving relations.
The multidimensional model is coherently applied throughout the book, with the exception of chapters 5 and 6. These chapters set out to examine the particular conditions under which the traditional two-level game model works better. Ye briefly discusses the nature of nonstate actors as a constant, or at least a non-disturbance factor, but does not include them in the research frame because these nonofficial actors do not seem to deteriorate relations. In the context of trade liberalization in chapter 5, for example, bilateral relations are mainly analyzed from the traditional two-level perspective, unlike in other chapters. The relatively inactive role of societal actors and “less salient level-II, -III, and -IV games regarding the CKFTA” are attributed to the issue of trade liberalization itself because a “large pro-FTA camp” had already existed in both countries and “trade liberalization is not a source that can evolve in bilateral soft conflict” (117–118). However, an analysis of any positive role played by societal actors in chapters 5 and 6 would still underpin the multidimensional model as well as mitigate concerns over the nature of societal actors as “double-edged swords” (144).
Ye’s research provides highly relevant policy suggestions for both the Chinese and South Korean governments. “Let people talk to each other” (93), the author argues. Ye suggests the new public diplomacy as a method for decreasing the possibility of soft clashes in Sino-South Korean bilateral relations. The increasing economic, educational, and cultural exchanges between China and South Korea provide plentiful resources for this important task.
Jiye Kim
The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia