214. CHINA'S FOREIGN RELATIONS 1950 TILL PRESENT (PANEL II)
214.
Panel Title : CHINA'S FOREIGN RELATIONS 1950 TILL PRESENT (PANEL II)
Chair : Brian John Bridges
Participant :
Ėtienne Girouard
Paper Title : China's North Korean policy during the 1990's : Cooperation and Distanciation
Abstract :
During the 1980's Beijing had put forward a one Korea foreign policy. In fact, Chinese politics was still motivated by ideological purposes. While North Korea was seen like a revolutionnary brother, South Korea was perceived as a cold war ennemy. It means that according to Beijing officials, North Korea was the sole legitimate state on the Korean Peninsula. At the same time, the Chinese reforms brought new perpectives among the foreign policy architects in Beijing. In fact, the Chinese CCP was trying to build his new legitimity on economic growth. Since the 1970'S, the fast South Korean economic growth appeared to be miraculous among political and economical analysts all around the world. Chinese leaders had progressively realized that it was no more profitable to cut off themselves from a so dynamic commercial partner. In 1992, after the collapse of USSR which had followed the disappearance of the Berlin Wall, Beijing decided to normalize his relations with Seoul. What are the consequences of this policy choice on China's North Korea foreign policy? Beijing decided to properly manage with both states following the objectives to keep good relations with the 2 Koreas. However, Beijing officials had to operate deep changes in their North Korean foreign policy to do so. Putting aside an ideological based foreign policy for a more pragmatic approach, Chinese foreign policy designers allowed more importance to norms and multilataleralism in their relations with other states. This sudden change in Chinese foreign policy designed the 3 main axes of China's North Korean policy in the 1990's. Those 3 axes led to a certain type of cooperation but also to a new dynamic of distanciation between the 2 countries. First of all, Beijing decided to distance himself from North Korea seeing in North Korea's Juche autarcical ideology a real burden for PCC own legitimity. Secondly, Beijing tried to cooperate with Pyongyang by exporting certain norms: Nuclear non-proliferation, multilateralism values and market economy principles. Lastly, Beijing cooperation toward Pyongyang aimed to maintain the regime and to prevent his eventual collapse. Cooperative dimensions can also be seen through a massive humanitarian aid including oil and food deliveries following the 1995 floods. In fact, we can conclude that Beijing's North Korean policy aimed to preserve North Korean regime by proposing the acceptance of international norms and by showing a disconfort toward a radical ideology which reminds the various national tragedies linked to Maoism. According to Beijing officials, North Korea has to remain stable. In fact, it is conceptualized as an important buffer state in an era caracterized by an United States hegemony on the international relations.
Brian John Bridges
Paper Title : One Country, Two Games: Football and Chinese Nationalism
Abstract :
Football (or soccer) is a great focus of popular interest in China. This paper is a comparative study of two of China's international football matches, against Hong Kong in a World Cup qualifier in 1985 and against Japan in the Asian Cuip final in 2004, both of which China lost and both of which were characterised by subsequent crowd indiscipline. By utilising political science and sociological theories, this paper endeavours to set these two games and the post-match reactions of fans against the background of the development of Chinese nationalism, China's complex relationships with Hong Kong and Japan at the time of these two matches, the significance of sport (and football in particular) in popular and governmental perspectives, and the global concern about soccer fan violence.
