The return of strongmen politics, exemplified by Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, has raised questions about societal influence on authoritarian regimes' foreign policies. Despite authoritarian rule... Show moreThe return of strongmen politics, exemplified by Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, has raised questions about societal influence on authoritarian regimes' foreign policies. Despite authoritarian rule tightening, vibrant debates on foreign policy persist in China. Scholars have pinpointed actors capable of influencing China's foreign policy and identified channels for exerting this influence. However, conditions under which Chinese societal actors impact foreign policy remain unclear. This dissertation investigates the influence of experts from Chinese foreign policy think tanks and International Relations scholars. Analyzing 100 official foreign policy statements, 500 think tank reports, and around 2000 academic articles using frame analysis and quantitative content analysis, I found no perfect transmission between official and societal constructs of China's national interest. This necessitates considering the impact of domestic structures. I argue that societal actors' proximity to the state and the state's openness to societal input facilitate or constrain their influence on the official construction of the national interest. My examination of political institutions and state-society relations changes under Xi Jinping reveals shifts in the state's receptivity to societal input, differing for think tanks and scholars. Additionally, I introduce a new measure of think tanks' and scholars' proximity to the state, providing fresh insights for reevaluating societal actors' impact on authoritarian regime foreign policies. Show less
Hong Kong's protest movements have created a repertoire of symbolism in artworks and artefacts that make statements about the political status of the city. This article analyses the protest art... Show moreHong Kong's protest movements have created a repertoire of symbolism in artworks and artefacts that make statements about the political status of the city. This article analyses the protest art that emerged during the 2019 anti-extradition protests. We explore how actors produced a sense of “Hong Kong-ness” and distributed political meanings through networked agitprop: a form of strategic communication that links people and ideas together in both physical and digital contexts, through emotional appeals in the service of a grassroots political programme. By analysing examples of such agitprop, we show how the movement organically constructed networks of meaning to promote its ideas of people, nation, and even independence. However, we also find that the commitment to nationalist frames of reference ultimately prevents such art from re-imaging Hong Kong outside the confines of nations and that it even inadvertently reproduces the systems of power it ostensibly sets out to challenge. Show less
This article investigates the interplay between art, commerce and democratization in the contemporary art market. It studies the roles of art merchandise, such as mugs decorated with images of high... Show moreThis article investigates the interplay between art, commerce and democratization in the contemporary art market. It studies the roles of art merchandise, such as mugs decorated with images of high art, in the contemporary art market in China. Relying on interviews, observations and other qualitative data, this article demonstrates that the merchandising of contemporary art is legitimate in China. The generation of income and promotion of artists and contemporary art generally emerged as important roles that China’s art world participants assign to art merchandise. Art merchandise is fitting for these roles in a consumer society. The prevalence of art merchandising in China stems from a lack of state support for contemporary art, and a specific cultural and historical context that makes people more attuned to accept multiples. This article contributes to the sociology of art, the literature on the democratization of art and arts marketing literature. Show less
Developing countries are growing apart on environmental issues. International environ- mental negotiations are no longer characterized merely by the North–South conflict. Rising powers have come to... Show moreDeveloping countries are growing apart on environmental issues. International environ- mental negotiations are no longer characterized merely by the North–South conflict. Rising powers have come to divide the Global South and redefine the Common-But- Differentiated Responsibilities principle. This article explains the divergence of China and India at the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, one of the first global envi- ronmental agreements to differentiate obligations between developing countries. China and India, the world’s two largest hydrofluorocarbon producers, ended decades of collaboration and split the rest of the developing world behind them. I argue that devel- opmental strategy and political institutions shape the preferences and influences of industrial, governmental, and social stakeholders, thereby explaining their negotiation behavior and outcome. This article explains why China moved faster and further than India on negotiations for hydrofluorocarbon regulation. It has important implications for the two rising powers’ implementation of the Kigali Amendment and for their posi- tion formulations on other environmental issues. Show less
This essay analyses the evolving character of Russia’s energy relationships in the post-Soviet space by looking at the Caucasus and Central Asia. In the past, due to the historic legacy of Russia... Show moreThis essay analyses the evolving character of Russia’s energy relationships in the post-Soviet space by looking at the Caucasus and Central Asia. In the past, due to the historic legacy of Russia-controlled pipelines, Moscow was able to exert influence by manipulating structural asymmetries in regional natural gas value chains. This has changed with China’s entry as the region’s major market alternative and the breakthroughs of the global energy transition. The initial phase of Russia’s declining ‘energy power’ vis-à-vis China in Central Asia came to an end as the Crimea crisis was unfolding, an event that has drastically changed the risk perception of Russian gas in Europe, setting off a chain of consequences that led to a re-evaluation of Russia’s energy power in post-Soviet Eurasia. The essay also shows, however, that Russia maintains influence in post-Soviet Eurasia through inter-elite networks and shared concerns among hydrocarbon-exporting countries about the energy transition. Show less
The late 1990s saw the emergence on the Chinese poetry scene of a phenomenon called “Poetry of the Nineties” (九十年代诗歌). This happened before the decade in question had reached its end. Different... Show moreThe late 1990s saw the emergence on the Chinese poetry scene of a phenomenon called “Poetry of the Nineties” (九十年代诗歌). This happened before the decade in question had reached its end. Different from what one might expect, the expression does not denote a simple calendar chronology – as in poetry written in the 1990s – but instead points to a literary-critical category, and more specifically to a particular poetics and a network of associated authors and critics. This discrepancy of calendar chronology and literary criticism offers a point of entry into a pivotal moment in critical discourse on contemporary Chinese poetry. Pivotal as it may be, this moment has remained underresearched to date, especially as regards its history, which goes back to the 1980s, and as regards its consequences, which continue to affect scholarship today. The present study addresses this blind spot by asking: What does “Poetry of the Nineties” signify, to whom, and to what effect? It engages with this question by investigating how poetry written in the 1990s is represented in 21st-century Chinese scholarship, and how this representation can be explained. Show less
This dissertation studies the construction of Chinese nationalism by the Chinese government and media companies through mass communication of government-staged and abrupt events in the reform era... Show moreThis dissertation studies the construction of Chinese nationalism by the Chinese government and media companies through mass communication of government-staged and abrupt events in the reform era between 2008 and 2012. It examines how Chinese audiences express online nationalist sentiments, representing whether the communication of media events meets the social demands established by “dream discourses.” Using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, it focuses on two case studies: the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands incident. The dissertation finds that these mass media events play a significant role in shaping Chinese state nationalism and popular nationalism. The related mass communication helps the Chinese government increase or, at least, maintain its legitimacy through various strategies. The findings of this dissertation also show that as Chinese audiences have increasingly voiced themselves in the information age, the government will keep treating the robust, uneasy entanglement of nationalism, globalization, and digital media more cautiously for its social development and stability. Show less
Countries routinely translate official statements and state media articles from native languages to English. Over time, these articles provide a window into what each government is trying to... Show moreCountries routinely translate official statements and state media articles from native languages to English. Over time, these articles provide a window into what each government is trying to portray to the world. The FOCUSdata Project provides years’ worth of text and language sentiment ratings for hundreds of thousands of articles from state media and ministry of foreign affairs’ websites from North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran. Information is an important foreign policy tool and national security strategists analyze how it influences the attitudes and behaviors of foreign audiences. This article introduces the FOCUSdata Project and shows how the sentiment data provide unique abilities to analyze Russia's and Iran's reactions to US policies and events and NGO human rights campaigns. Evaluating countries’ official narratives improves understanding of government signals to outside actors, reactions to crises and foreign policy tools, and interests regarding (un)favorable developments. Governments’ sentiment provides unique explanatory power. Show less
Nationalism today interacts in complicated ways with advanced information and communication systems, regularly leading to unanticipated consequences. Popular online nationalism in the People's... Show moreNationalism today interacts in complicated ways with advanced information and communication systems, regularly leading to unanticipated consequences. Popular online nationalism in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is a case in point: In the PRC, digital nationalism has become a central feature of political discourse and decision-making, at times powerfully shaping the state's policy efforts. This article explores a missing puzzle piece in how state-led and popular nationalism interact in Chinese politics: the role that advanced information and communication technologies play in such processes. This is a question that is not only relevant to scholars of China but also to anyone interested in the role that digital media and communication play in the formation and spread of contemporary nationalism. How do interactions in complex sociotechnical systems affect nationalism today? To answer this question, the article analyses and traces interaction and feedback loops in Chinese digital environments during Sino-Japanese disputes over the East China Sea. It shows how the interactions between humans, organisations and technologies create unexpected variations in outcome that resonate through China's internet and create the conditions from which digital nationalism can powerfully emerge to shape legitimation and policy-making processes. Show less
When the COVID-19 virus broke out in China, foreign observers speculated whether the Chinese leadership was facing its ‘Chernobyl Moment’. China’s leadership, however, defied foreign expectations... Show moreWhen the COVID-19 virus broke out in China, foreign observers speculated whether the Chinese leadership was facing its ‘Chernobyl Moment’. China’s leadership, however, defied foreign expectations about its ostensibly floundering legitimacy and instead turned the crisis into a national success story. This article explores the role that digital media played in cementing this success, specifically how various actors mobilized nationalist sentiments and discourses on the online video-sharing platform Bilibili. By focusing on visual discourses, online commentaries, and the affordances of the digital platform, the article analyses the role that ‘hip’ and youthful content played in the authorities’ attempts to guiding online audiences to rally around the flag. The results of these efforts were viral villages of community sentiment that created strong incentives for conformity, and in which the official party line was able to reverberate with pop-culture memes and popular nationalism. Show less
This article explores the quest for sovereign equality by China and Japan as it unfolded in a specific historical moment, the third quarter of the nineteenth century. It does so by focusing on the... Show moreThis article explores the quest for sovereign equality by China and Japan as it unfolded in a specific historical moment, the third quarter of the nineteenth century. It does so by focusing on the debate around the ‘coolie trade’, i.e., the traffic of Chinese indentured labourers, which offered an opportunity for non-Western countries such as China and Japan to position themselves with respect to Western conceptions of ‘modernity’ or ‘civilization’ and thereby advance their quest for ‘parity with all nations’. Through a study of the Maria Luz case, decided in the early 1870s by Czar Alexander II and drafted by de Martens, the article sheds light on the different approaches of Japan and China with respect to international law at this critical historical juncture. Specifically, it shows that, although the coolie trade mostly affected China, it was Japan who first managed to reap a parity dividend by firmly condemning the practice, whereas China’s action was steered by the circumstances. Eventually, however, China’s growing interest in Chinese populations abroad paved the way for the establishment of its first permanent diplomatic representations overseas. For both countries, the events encapsulated by the Maria Luz case unveil an important, yet overlooked, moment in their quest for parity with all nations and, more generally, in their engagement with international law. Show less
This article examines Chinese celebrities' UN-affiliated Weibo activism in the context of China's increasing engagement in the United Nations, which coincides with a shrinking domestic public... Show moreThis article examines Chinese celebrities' UN-affiliated Weibo activism in the context of China's increasing engagement in the United Nations, which coincides with a shrinking domestic public sphere under Xi Jinping's leadership. Our article sheds light on how Chinese celebrity diplomacy is balancing contradictory expectations by the UN, the Chinese party-state and the domestic public in China. In doing so, we offer an important conceptual update of the western-centric literature on ‘celebrity diplomacy’, which focuses mostly on celebrity politics instead of diplomacy and tends to neglect the digital sphere. Based on a combined qualitative and quantitative approach, we draw fresh conclusions from nine Chinese celebrities' communication on Weibo since 2013. Our research covers the years marking China's growing self-confidence and a more assertive Chinese diplomatic style in global affairs. Although accredited by the UN, on balance Chinese celebrities' activism has become more symbolic than real, and as a rule aligned with the Chinese leadership's domestic and international ambitions. At a time of greater Chinese global activism, we are sensitive to the policy implications of Chinese celebrities' engagement on the cusp of the political and diplomatic spheres. Show less
China is the second-biggest trading partner of the European Union, and the EU is the biggest trading partner of China. Hence, China adds EU have a close relationship. In this sense, it is vital to... Show moreChina is the second-biggest trading partner of the European Union, and the EU is the biggest trading partner of China. Hence, China adds EU have a close relationship. In this sense, it is vital to find the media perception of the EU and the political ideology behind their relationship. However, most of the existed studies explore China-EU relationship through their trade information, while ignore the role of Chinese media frame of EU. This study believe that China’s official media frame offer a strong evidence to understand China-EU relation- ship. This article aims to examine China’s official media perception of the EU by systematically examine the previous study. This study finds that Chinese media frame EU as an economic and political partner in a positive way but try to avoid mentioning the contradiction and friction, the selective negative is-sues are mainly for propaganda and conform to Chinese government atti- tude. Hence, this study discusses that Chinese official media follow the narra- tive of the Chinese government and reflect the EU-China relationship from the Chinese government perspective. Show less
With China’s rapid growth as a regional and global power, think tanks in China have received increasing attention from politicians and academics, mostly due to the achievements of academic and... Show moreWith China’s rapid growth as a regional and global power, think tanks in China have received increasing attention from politicians and academics, mostly due to the achievements of academic and processing policies. Recently, collaborations between the media and think tanks have become increasingly tight. This article aims to explore China’s think tank industry and their relationship with the media by interviewing two members of staff from one of China’s most prominent think tanks and observing the Institute for six months. This study has found that China’s think tanks have a close relationship with the government and the media. The traditional Chinese Confucian culture and the "bureaucracy-oriented tradition" have a significant role in the think tanks’ political behavior. This leads the think tanks to play the role of being an advocate of the government. Although social media, to some extent, liberalizes the work style of China’s think tanks, the think tanks’ use of social media still follows the traditional media logic to facilitate the government’s interests. Overall, the study argues that Chinese think tanks show features of being a “Government-lead non-governmental organization" with a semi-official identity to complement the official authorities. Show less
This introduction provides the context and theoretical background that informs the studies in this volume. It introduces the volume’s common theme: the question of how different actors give shape... Show moreThis introduction provides the context and theoretical background that informs the studies in this volume. It introduces the volume’s common theme: the question of how different actors give shape to BRI projects. It outlines how, rather than treating nation states as singular, monolithic actors, this volume teases apart the way different people and organizations insert themselves into BRI decision-making and implementation. The chapter discusses how we might conceptualize agency in such contexts, drawing together the volume’s findings to arrive at four conclusions: 1) that in understanding the BRI, geographical context matters; 2) that the BRI is a pluralist endeavour rather than a single, unified agenda; 3) that BRI efforts often extend rather than challenge existing politics; and 4) that outcomes depend on the activities of local actors. Show less
