Abstract
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003. 220, £39.95, ISBN 0 7546 1497 2
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, academic/research, professional
Rating: ***
Reviewer: IAN TALBOT
(Coventry University)
This work argues that Pakistan has historically maintained armed forces far ‘beyond its own resource capabilities’ (p. 133). An ‘offense defense’ strategy has not only resulted in disastrous episodes of adventurism, but also exacerbated structural weaknesses in the Pakistan economy arising from a low savings and tax base. National security, Faruqui argues, is based on both ‘hard’ military assets and ‘soft’ assets such as strong political leadership, social cohesion, a viable economic base and successful foreign policy (p. 114). Social cohesion depends on human development, but its funding has been squeezed by military expenditure. The author also points to the deleterious affects of a nuclear and conventional arms race on the more robust Indian economy.
A number of policy proposals emerge in the second part of the volume. Pakistan's switch to a defence-dominated doctrine would release funds through a downsizing of the armed forces. This would be reinforced by greater transparency in defence expenditures. The author also sketches out steps in a peace process for a resolution of the Kashmir dispute, which he regards as the principal cause of Indo-Pakistan tension.
These arguments are made persuasively in this carefully written text. The impact of defence expenditure on Pakistan's economy is authoritatively revealed. The problem not just for this work, but for policy-makers, is the disconnection between the ‘high politics’ of strategic analysis and day-to-day realities. The domestic political compulsions regarding the Indian and Pakistan stances on Kashmir are, for example, unexplored and it is too readily assumed that rational political choices will be followed. Finally, the Indian dimension in the future outworking of relations between the ‘distant neighbours’ requires further reflection.
Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001. 273, £43.95, ISBN 1 55587 961 6
Reviewer: DUNCAN MCCARGO
(University of Leeds)
Zachary Abuza's is the most up-to-date book-length overview of recent developments in Vietnamese politics. The book charts Vietnam's failure to build constructively upon its superb military victory over the USA, examining the Vietnamese Communist Party's near-pathological intolerance of dissent and the all-pervasive corruption that has undermined the country's attempts to create a successful market economy. The primary focus is on challenges to the VCP's long-standing monopoly on power. Such challenges come from writers and intellectuals, elements of the media, disgruntled war veterans, Buddhist monks and Catholic priests – but most importantly from senior party members themselves. Even well-intentioned and essentially ‘loyal’ critics of the regime have been unable to speak out about abuses of power, instead finding themselves ousted, arrested, jailed or exiled.
Abuza writes in a highly readable fashion, at times bordering on the journalistic. His eminently persuasive thesis is that Vietnam may only be reformed as a result of substantive pressures from within. Based almost entirely on English-language secondary sources – and containing little evidence of original research – this book is ideal for anyone new to the study of contemporary Vietnam; it will find less favour with Vietnam specialists, who may consider its arguments rather shallow. I do hope the publishers will bring out a paperback edition, which would sell well in South-east Asia.
Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. 401, £22.95, ISBN 0 7425 1679 0
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 303, £16.95, ISBN 0 521 00752 6
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, academic/research
Rating: ****
Reviewer: JOSEPH CHAN
(University of Hong Kong)
The two books under review both aim to reconstruct the ‘Chinese human rights discourse’ that is little known or studied by Western and Chinese scholars today. Taken together they fill an important gap in the literature on Chinese thought and human rights.
Marina Svensson's Debating Human Rights in China covers Chinese human rights discourse from the early twentieth century up to the most recent debates in the 1990s. The core part of the book follows a chronological order, with chapters on the pre-1911 debates on human rights and the overriding goal of national salvation, the May Fourth Movement and early 1920s debates on human rights and individual liberation, the human rights debate and critique of the Nanking regime from 1927 to 1937, the fate of human rights discussion during the war against Japan and the civil war, the human rights debates on two sides of the Taiwan strait in the 1950s, and the evolution of human rights discourse on the mainland from the 1970s to the 1990s. Adopting the approach of conceptual and political history, Svensson argues that, contrary to the popular view that human rights seem to have entered Chinese political discourse only after 1989, China has had a rich and internally contested debate on human rights since the late Qing dynasty. This debate, largely forgotten or neglected by both Chinese and Western scholars, was indigenously motivated and firmly anchored in domestic political preoccupations.
The book seems successful in demonstrating this thesis. Svensson's analysis of the Chinese conception of human rights is based on a wide range of articles on politics and law published in various influential magazines as well as collections of writings by leading intellectual and political figures. The book is rich in details, comprehensive in scope and careful in its exposition. It also has a superb bibliography of the writings of Chinese intellectuals since the early twentieth century. The book is a very good guide for anyone who wants to understand Chinese rights thinking in the past century.
Stephen Angle's Human Rights in Chinese Thought traces the philosophical roots of modern Chinese rights thinking to neo-Confucianism since the eleventh century. He argues that, although Chinese rights discourse did not begin until the late nineteenth century, the Chinese reception of Western ideas of rights was made much easier by the fact that a number of important neo-Confucian thinkers from the eleventh to the seventeenth century had made innovative arguments that proved conducive to the reception. In the book's early chapters, Angle attempts to show how these thinkers liberated individual self-regarding desires and interests from a highly moralistic Confucian tradition and gave them a legitimacy essential to the later recognition of individual rights as protection of legitimate self-interests. Angle goes on to argue that later Chinese thinkers such as Liang Qichao and Liu Shipei weaved together the neo-Confucian view of legitimate self-interests and the long-standing Confucian emphasis on interpersonal groups and communities to form a distinctive perspective on rights. This perspective stresses that individual and group interests coincide, and that there is a single pattern of interactions between things in the cosmos which results in harmonious flourishing for all. Angle finds that this dual emphasis on individual and group interest persisted throughout the twentieth century and has had important bearings on contemporary Chinese discussions on interests as the basis of rights, the notion of harmony, the interplay between the individual and collective, the right of national independence and the right to subsistence – these are themes that have further shaped and defined the Chinese rights discourse.
Like Svensson's, this book displays the author's mastery of the Chinese corpus and methodological care. Angle draws interesting parallels between Chinese and Western ideas and arguments, showing how mutual engagement and learning of the two traditions are possible. The book covers a lot of ground, but Angle manages to defend a relatively coherent yet multi-faceted picture of Chinese rights discourse. This is a work that makes original contributions to the study of Chinese thought, Confucianism and comparative human rights thinking.
The two books provide a strong and convincing argument for the thesis that there is a ‘distinctive’ Chinese rights discourse. The Chinese rights discourse is not merely an imperfect attempt to mirror Western ideas, but has developed in accord with Chinese concerns and practices. Chinese concepts of rights over the years have differed in important ways from many Western conceptions of rights.
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002. 312, £55.00, ISBN 0 7546 2251 7
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, professional
Rating: ***
Reviewer: CHI ZHANG
(Stanford University)
This book is a study of the Chinese electricity industry reform. The author frames the issue in the context of the recent international trend of utility market restructuring, and focuses the discussion on the political complexity of the reform. The book provides in great detail an historical account of the power industry background, development and reform process, and describes broadly the politics of the restructuring issues, including ownership reform, de-integration of power generation, delivery and end-user services, federalism and decentralization, tariff and investment, as well as economic and social complications. The author argues that political difficulties of the reform are further aggravated in China by the transitional nature of its economy and institutions, and the reform cannot be carried forward in a radical way. The book is good reading for students and professionals who want to have a general understanding of the history and issues of Chinese power industry reform.
The historical account and broad coverage limit the author's analysis of some important issues that the study aims to address. For example, as many studies point out, Chinese power industry reform has been more piecemeal in response to power market fluctuations than well designed according to economic models. A further discussion of this nature of the reform would help explain many of its political difficulties. A more difficult issue is how to evaluate the reform so far. It is often debated whether changing the ownership from state-owned to public, corporatizing state enterprises and withdrawing the government from business operations in China are substantial or procedural. The evidence scattered in the book seems to support the former, although a focused discussion would further strengthen the author's main argument. The book is well organized and easy to read.
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002. 217, £42.50, ISBN 0 7546 1765 3
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, academic/research
Reviewer: STEPHANIE LAWSON
(University of East Anglia)
The East/South-east Asian region has been a major focus for scholars of international political economy over the past few decades, first in terms of the extraordinary economic dynamism of the region and then, in the late 1990s, because of the equally spectacular financial crisis that left many (though not all) of the economies reeling. The contributors to this collection revisit a number of the key issues surrounding both sets of developments, but with a particular concern to link domestic and comparative case-study material with broader themes in the literature on international relations and globalization.
The result is an interesting, if slightly eclectic, set of essays that range from reflections on the developmental state after the financial crisis to elite politics, political culture, middle power theory, environment and foreign aid policy, social movements, political liberalization and democracy, and the prospects for regional human rights mechanisms. The case-study material leans heavily towards the East Asian countries of China, Japan and South Korea, although one chapter focuses on Indonesia/East Timor and some others have a broader comparative dimension. For example, a chapter on the role of social movements in demilitarizing Okinawa also looks at lessons from the anti-bases movement in the Philippines; while another, on Japan's regional environmental aid policy, discusses issues in the broader region.
In general, the contributions are competent and engaging, and although some of the original papers were presented as far back as 1998, at a panel of the American Political Science Association, they have all been revised and updated to reflect developments up to 2001. One could always wish for more topics or countries to be covered, and it is unfair to expect a book such as this to do everything. However, at least one important issue that should have received much greater attention is regionalization and how this feeds into the domestic/international nexus.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 362, £16.95, ISBN 0 521 66442 X
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 403, £40.00, ISBN 0 521 81428 6
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, academic/research, professional
Rating: *****
Reviewer: HONGYING WANG
(Syracuse University)
These are two excellent studies of China's relations with the world economy. From different angles, they shed much light on the linkage between China's domestic institutions and its foreign economic relations. Both are implicitly comparative and consciously theoretical.
The main argument of China in the World Market is that China's participation in the international economy has had a major impact on Chinese economic reforms. Focusing on the textile and ship-building industries, this study shows that when China entered the international market, it faced constraints and opportunities created by the fundamental dynamics in the global market. Specifically, the moderate market closure in the 1980s and 1990s (due to the Multifiber Arrangement in the case of the textile industry, and global surplus capacity in the case of shipbuilding) gave the Chinese strong incentives to ‘trade up’, replacing cheap exports with more sophisticated and profitable products. These external stimuli, mediated by domestic political and economic structure, led to reform, restructuring and rationalization of the Chinese textile and ship-building industries. The result is a retreat of state intervention in the industries and an increase of the role of market forces. The author bases his argument on careful analyses of evidence gathered from official documents, statistical yearbooks, industry publications and interviews with informed sources. This book is innovative and persuasive. It is a major contribution to the study of contemporary China, where existing literature focuses primarily on the domestic sources of economic reforms. It also enriches the general political economy literature, pointing out the limitations of both neoclassical economic theory and the theory of the developmental state when it comes to understanding transitional societies.
Selling China is a study of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China in the reform era. The author identifies several distinctive patterns of FDI in China, showing an unusually high level of FDI dependency. Contrary to the prevailing consensus among policy-makers and academics, he argues that the large amounts of FDI in China are not a sign of China's economic vitality, but a reflection of the lack of competitiveness of domestic Chinese companies. He argues that the huge demand for FDI in China is not due to a lack of capital (China is a net capital exporter), but results from inefficient domestic institutions. In particular, China's political pecking order allocates economic resources to the least efficient companies – state-owned enterprises – and starves the most efficient actors – private entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, serious market fragmentation constrains the expansion of domestic firms in ways not applicable to foreign firms. FDI is a response to the opportunities that domestic firms have failed to take. Furthermore, this book contends that the major benefits of FDI inflows to China are the privatization functions, capital provisions to private entrepreneurs and the promotion of capital mobility across regions in China, rather than market access, technology spill-over and management know-how, as claimed by the standard FDI literature. The author supports his arguments with an impressive amount of data gathered from both primary and secondary sources, including government documents and statistics, survey data, interviews and comparative FDI literature.
Selling China stands conventional wisdom on its head. It provides a refreshing and provocative perspective on FDI in China, which should surely grab the attention of policy-makers and business people, as well as scholars of China. It also introduces a new direction for the study of FDI in general, showing the importance of not only the supply side of FDI, but also the demand side rooted in host country institutions.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. 271, £45.00, ISBN 0 19 924828 1
Reviewer: J. A. A. STOCKWIN
(University of Oxford)
Local government in Japan between the 1870s and 1945 was highly centralized, in pursuit of nation-building and development. The Allied occupation (1945–52) attempted to decentralize, but its reforms did not properly take root until the 1970s. The core argument of this work is that Japan has developed an integrationist model of central-local relations, by contrast to separationist models privileging competition as means towards efficiency and small government. The authors believe that the integrationist model has proved itself well in the Japanese context, though they are less sure how far it might transfer elsewhere. They see among its advantages the widespread practice of personnel transfer between central ministries and local bureaucracies, enabling local officials to learn from their central counterparts and vice versa. This is part of a pattern of regular job transfer designed to create rounded generalists. The authors are impressed by the quality of local officials, and note that today a career in local government is even more desirable than a career in a national ministry. They commend group-centred patterns of career advancement, whereby everyone progresses at the same pace for about a decade, after which it gradually becomes evident who is destined for exceptional promotion. They note with approval the combination of local initiative with central government guidelines designed to redistribute benefits and ensure fair shares.
The specific chapters concern political inclusiveness (Terry MacDougall), controlled decentralization (Kengo Akizuki), taxes and transfers (Nobuki Mochida), impersonal mechanisms and personal networks (Steven Reed), staff loans and transfers (Takenori Inoki), personnel systems and policies (Hiroaki Inatsugu), municipal amalgamations (Masaru Mabuchi), agency delegation (Ikuo Kume) and local policy initiatives (Toshiya Kitayama). The editors jointly provide thoughtful introductory and concluding chapters. This book may not be to the taste of the more inflexible devotees of classical economics and minimally interventionist government, but for those who see merit in administrative effectiveness as well as narrowly defined efficiency, there is much to consider here.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 225, £11.95, ISBN 0 521 52403 2
Reviewer: RICHARD W. X. HU
(University of Hong Kong)
This edited volume contains essays by an outstanding group of European scholars on the development of Chinese-European relations since 1978. Covering a wide range of topics from diplomatic relations, human rights, economic relations and cultural exchanges to the role of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan in the relations, the volume not only provides a very good ‘big picture’ of relations today, but also offers excellent discussions of European perspectives of the relationship. It is a must-read for those who are interested in Chinese-European relations.
One of the biggest challenges facing the contributors to this volume is which Chinese-European relations to address. For Europeans, there are always two parallel relations with China: one is the European Union's unified policy towards China; the other is European states' bilateral relations with China. As most contributors correctly point out, the two relations are not mutually exclusive rather than intertwined. Most European states take advantage of the existence of the EU in their dealings with Beijing. They use it either to increase bargaining power vis-à-vis China or to bypass certain tough issues such as human rights and East Asian security so as not to interfere with bilateral trade and normal relations with China. This pattern of behaviour also suits China's needs. Beijing prefers to deal with ‘Europe’ rather than the EU, and with the EU rather than NATO. Yet, the EU is a concrete but fuzzy ‘technical framework of Europe’ (p. 10). The lingering uncertainties of the Union itself and the rise of China in world politics have made the relationship full of puzzles and contradictions. Sometimes the EU appears to be doing something on China (for example, human rights), but there has been no effort to come up with a unified policy. Adding to the problems is the issue of Hong Kong and Macau for Sino-British and Sino-Portuguese relations, and the Taiwan issue for most of the European states' relations with Beijing. They not only complicate bilateral relations with Beijing, but also become problems for the Union in reaching a unified policy. All the authors in the volume do an excellent job of addressing these contradictions and complications in Chinese-European relations from the European perspective.
One major weakness of this volume is that, like other edited volumes, it lacks a unifying theme and analytical framework. Because the book is meant to be a comprehensive survey of the state of relations, it would not contribute much to the literature of conceptualizing the relationship. The essays actually raise more questions than they answer for future research. For example, why is the USA much ‘closer’ to China than Europe in terms of economic relations and national interests? Why is China kept from being the top of the agenda for Europe? Addressing these questions may require more theoretical as well as empirical efforts. Having said that, however, this edited volume should be a standard reference for anyone interested in contemporary Chinese-European relations.
London: Sage, 2002. 360, £14.99, ISBN 0 7619 9596 X
Reviewer: PAUL WALLACE
(University of Missouri)
Four years after Operation Blue Star, the Golden Temple in Amritsar again became occupied by militants. Messianic Sikh leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale died in the 1984 assault by India's regular army. Operation Black Thunder in 1988 provides a marked contrast and lessons in confronting terrorism.
In contrast to the earlier brutish military action – an ‘elephant chasing a mouse’, to coin a metaphor – Operation Black Thunder skilfully employed surgeon-like military tactics with maximum transparency. Sarab Jit Singh, the author, is a key figure in Black Thunder. From 1987 to 1992, he served as Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar and as a key decision-maker in rooting out the terrorists in 1988. As he points out, the ‘Army Operation of 1984 … had bruised the Sikh psyche’ (p. 129) in killing more than a thousand innocent pilgrims and destroying key parts of the Golden Temple complex. Strategy and special military rather than brute force led to the surrender of the terrorists in 1998. Moreover, Indian as well as international media reported from the scene, limiting the rumours as well as revealing the religious violations and terrorist excesses. Loss of the temple ‘also meant a loss of control over their cadres’ (p. 150). Singh concluded that Operation Black Thunder could have led to the end of the political violence. He blames the government, particularly in New Delhi, as well as the SGPC, the managing committee of the historic Sikh temples, for losing this opportunity. Political violence, by both the militants and the state (p. 52), continued until 1993.
Now a retired IAS officer, Singh does not hesitate to provide detailed criticism of the Indian state, machinations of the militants, Akali Dal and Congress Party leaders, as well as Pakistan's intelligence agency. Joginder Singh Rode, Bhindranwale's nephew, is criticized as being part of an ill-conceived government plan. Similarly, Manjit Singh and Harmandir Singh Sandhu, are labelled ‘creatures of the government’ (p. 228). A linkage with Kashmir terrorists is briefly described (p. 236). Positively, he credits the military in the last as compared to the first phase of the militancy, compliments individual governors and administrators, and provides mixed comments on the police as well as paramilitary units. Official figures of killings sum up the cost of violence from 1981 to 1993: civilians 11,690, terrorists 7,946, police personnel 1,714. In addition, more than 20,000 terrorists were arrested (p. 338). These, undoubtedly, are very conservative figures. He warns against the Indian government again provoking ‘communal politics’ (p. 339) and concludes that no longer is there public support for terrorism. Operation Black Thunder also renders it unlikely that militants can use the Golden Temple again.
New York: Palgrave, 2002. 340, £40.00, ISBN 0 312 29410 7
Reviewer: OOI KEE BENG
(Stockholm University)
These eight essays analyze the weaknesses of Asian nations, which emanate partly from the erosion of the institution of the nation state and partly from inherited ethnic divisions. The point that nations, in truth, are never stable raises questions about the legitimacy and efficacy of the organizational form itself. The first essay, by Arvind N. Das, sets the mood: ‘… this is the era both of globalization and of ethnicity’. Ethnicity is seen as a response to globalization not to be identified with nationalism. Prasenjit Duara discusses the symbiosis between nation and civilization, where the latter provides spiritual reasons for the existence of the former. Herman Schwartz argues that the 1997 financial crisis is comparable to the depression of the 1920s and 1930s, which allows him to make certain predictions. These three articles present a range of forces – migration, civilization and economics – that besiege states. The remaining chapters balance these perspectives with descriptions of nationalism in Japan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Fiji. In contrast to the last three countries, the first two are not heavily burdened by inter-ethnic concerns. For example, in Japanese nationalism, insightfully presented by Gavan McCormack, conceptions of purity and spirit are common, while in Malaysia, Indonesia and Fiji, indigenous rights are paramount.
In the light of Duara's discussion about the importance of ‘civilization’, a proper presentation of Islamism, both as ethnic identity and as ideological inspiration, would have been a welcome addition. Globalization, as the editor states, ‘is the great fact of our age’. However, it also simplifies contemporary political conceptualizations. Understood as an overpowering process, globalization must threaten all socio-political units with any history at all. Rumours about the death of nation states are therefore easily exaggerated, for a crisis may signal renewal just as much as it forebodes the end.
Asia-Pacific
New books received
Thomas P. Bernstein and Xiaobo Lü (2003) Taxation Without Representation in Contemporary Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 300, £50.00, ISBN 0 521 81318 2
Malcolm M. Feeley and Setsuo Miyazawa (eds) (2002) The Japanese Adversary System in Context: controversies and comparisons. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 282, £50.00, ISBN 0 333 92060 0
Madhav Godbole (2000) The Changing Times: a commentary on current affairs. London: Sangam, 360, £14.95, ISBN 0 86311 825 9
Thomas Gold, Doug Guthrie and David Wank (eds) (2002) Social Connections in China: institutions, culture, and the changing nature of Guanxi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 293, £16.95, ISBN 0 521 53031 8
Graham Hassall and Cheryl Saunders (2002) Asia-Pacific Constitutional Systems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 325, £40.00, ISBN 0 521 59129 5
Keiko Hirata (2002) Civil Society in Japan: the growing role of NGOs in Tokyo's aid development policy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 221, £40.00, ISBN 0 312 23936 X
Catarina Kinnvall and Kristina Jönsson (eds) (2002) Globalization and Democratization in Asia: the construction of identity. London: Routledge, 286, £65.00, ISBN 0 415 27730 2
Veena Kukreja (2003) Contemporary Pakistan: political processes, conflicts and crises. New Delhi: Sage, 368, £14.99, ISBN 0 7619 9683 4
Aiguo Lu and Manuel F. Montes (eds) (2002) Poverty, Income Distribution and Well-being in Asia during the Transition. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 311, £45.00, ISBN 0 333 97026 8
B. R. Nanda (2002) In Gandhi's Footsteps: the life and times of Jamnalal Bajaj. Paperback. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 414, £13.99, ISBN 0 19 566343 8
Ashis Nandy (2003) The Romance of the State: and the fate of dissent in the Tropics. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 232, £19.99, ISBN 0 19 565864 7
S. C. M. Paine (2003) The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895: perceptions, power, and primacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 423, £40.00, ISBN 0 521 81714 5
Randall Peerenboom (2002) China's Long March toward Rule of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 691, £29.95, ISBN 0 521 01674 6
Gregory L. Possehl (2002) The Indus Civilization: a contemporary perspective. Walnut Creek CA: AltaMira Press, 288, £22.95, ISBN 0 7591 0172 8
William H. Thornton (2002) Fire on the Rim: the cultural dynamics of East/West power politics. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 230, £20.95, ISBN 0 7425 1707 1
Paul Wallace and Ramashray Roy (eds) (2003) India's 1999 Elections and 20th Century Politics. New Delhi: Sage, 459, £29.99, ISBN 0 7619 9598 6
Erika Weinthal (2002) State Making and Environmental Co-operation: linking domestic and international politics in Central Asia. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, ix + 274, £16.95, ISBN 0 262 73146 0
Yumei Zhang (2003) Pacific Asia: the politics of development. London: Routledge, 200, £11.99, ISBN 0 415 18489 4