Asian Studies Centre, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford
China and East Asian Security
Tuesday 19th November
Dahrendorf Room, Founder’s Building, St Antony's College 5.00 – 6.30pm
Dr Amy King
(Australian National University)
China and the idea of "economic security"
Amy King is a Lecturer in the School of International, Political and Strategic Studies at the Australian National University. She completed her D.Phil in International Relations at the University of Oxford in 2012, and an M.Phil in Modern Chinese Studies in 2009. Amy's researchfocuses on Sino-Japanese relations; the economic-security nexus; and the legacy of war, imperialism and late industrialization in Asia. Her current research project examines China’s foreign economic policy towards Japan, and considers how policy-makers' ideas about Japan shaped China's Japan policy during the early Cold War. This research draws on extensive archival sources from China, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom, including over 200 recently declassified documents from the Chinese Foreign Ministry Archive.
China and the idea of 'economic security'
It is commonly observed that the idea of ‘economic security’ (jingjianquan) did not take hold in Chinese strategic thinking until the 1980s, following the introduction of Deng Xiaoping’s Reform and Opening policies, or the late 1990s, in the wake of the Asian Financial Crisis. However, this paper demonstrates that ideas about the nexus between economics and national security developed in China well before the 1980s and 1990s. This paper examines Chinese ideas about three specific aspects of the relationship between economics and security from the 1950s and 1960s: 1) ideas about economic sanctions as a weapon of war; 2) ideas about building a mutually beneficial international economic order so that countries would not resort to imperialism or aggression in the pursuit of economic development; and 3) ideas about the use of technology in building both a rich nation and strong army. The paper argues that these ideas about the relationship between economics and security have a longer history in China than is commonly assumed, and that they continue to influence contemporary Chinese thinking about the economic-security nexus.
All are welcome
Convenor:Professor Rosemary Foot
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