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China’s Search
for ‘National
Rejuvenation’
Domestic and Foreign
Policies under Xi Jinping
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore
189721, Singapore
Dedicated to
Prof. Do Tien Sam (1953–2019)
Acknowledgements
Jabin T. Jacob would like to thank his former colleagues at the Institute of
Chinese Studies, Delhi, where this project was first conceived and thanks
especially, Rajesh Ghosh for his editorial and research assistance.
Hoang The Anh would like to thank his colleagues in the Vietnam
Academy of Social Sciences for their support and help in editing of the
Vietnamese papers.
vii
Contents
Part I Introduction 1
ix
x Contents
8 The BRI and the East Sea Disputes in China’s Ties with
Southeast Asia115
Hoang The Anh
Index231
Contributors
xiii
xiv CONTRIBUTORS
xv
PART I
Introduction
CHAPTER 1
J. T. Jacob (*)
Department of International Relations and Governance Studies, Shiv Nadar
University, Uttar Pradesh, India
National Maritime Foundation, New Delhi, India
e-mail: jabin.jacob@snu.edu.in
Hoang The Anh
Institute of Chinese Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences,
Hanoi, Vietnam
there was much that remained to be done in order for China to find what
it considered its legitimate place in the world.
The reference to “national rejuvenation” in this work refers to this con-
tinuing effort by the Chinese Party-state with a focus on the renewed
attempts by Xi to carry this process forward. As he puts it, the ‘new era’
… will be an era for the Chinese people of all ethnic groups to work together
and work hard to create a better life for themselves and ultimately achieve
common prosperity for everyone. It will be an era for all of us, the sons and
daughters of the Chinese nation, to strive with one heart to realize the
Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. (Xi 2017)
Thus, the CPC is once again talking about the need for the Chinese
people to make sacrifices at the national and individual levels to ensure
that China converts its domestic strengths to global standing and leverage.
And these sacrifices will be necessary because of the economic difficulties
that China faces on both the domestic and external fronts.
claim the mantle of No. 1 are limited against the backdrop of its own con-
siderable economic challenges, even if Xi (2017) claims that China is
“closer, more confident, and more capable than ever before of making the
goal of national rejuvenation a reality”.
Some of these challenges are old and persistent. Inequality is a major
challenge at multiple levels. There is the inequality between the different
regions of China—the coastal east, the interior provinces, the western
provinces and the northeastern industrial rustbelt—as well as within prov-
inces themselves. Then there is the inequality that exists between urban
and rural areas, as well as the huge gaps in income between individuals.
While extreme poverty is expected to be eliminated by 2020 (Xinhua
2019), in time for the centennial of the founding of the CPC in 2021, the
problem in China is now of relative poverty—of the sense of deprivation
that those without too many means feel while observing the lives of the
rich, the prosperous and the connected in China. Regional inequalities
even play into admissions to China’s top universities (Fu 2018).
Meanwhile, despite the Third Plenum Decision of the 18th CPC
Central Committee in 2013 which talked about giving a “decisive role in
resource allocation” to market forces (Xinhua 2013), Xi has subsequently
focused on strengthening state-owned enterprises (SOEs) instead and
both promoting them as “national champions” and calling on them to
become leaders internationally (Cai 2017). Currently, SOEs hold the
greatest amount of unproductive assets and debt and yet get most of the
credit from state-controlled banks (Wang and Leng 2018). What is more,
Xi has also strengthened the Party’s presence in Chinese private enter-
prises (Chen 2019; see also The Conversation 2019) as well as foreign ones
located in China (Martina 2017) calling into question the distinction
between private and public in the Chinese economy.
All of this has implications for the efficiency of the Chinese economy,
including the viability of the BRI—note that most Chinese companies
involved in BRI projects abroad are SOEs and if they carry forward the
same lack of environmental standards or business practices from China,
then there are reasons for host countries to beware of Chinese invest-
ments. Add to these, there are problems within of Chinese officials exhib-
iting a ‘go slow’ attitude to work, for instance, which has required ever
more exhortations from Xi to the CPC to reduce what is euphemistically
referred to as “bureaucratism” (Xi 2017).
On the positive side of the ledger is the Chinese leadership’s farsighted
focus on gaining leadership in both basic and frontier-edge technologies
1 ‘NATIONAL REJUVENATION’ AS PANACEA FOR CHINA’S DOMESTIC… 7
What this also underlines, however, is that where once the CPC thought
it could learn from the outside world and control the consequences at the
same time or at least that the consequences would not fundamentally
threaten its own existence, today the measures undertaken by Xi suggest
that such confidence no longer exists. From the heavy-handed anti-
corruption campaign to the ever increasing number of directives and
instructions underlining limits to debates in universities to the constant
drumbeat of state-driven propaganda and adulation of Xi to the extreme
surveillance measures used against its own citizens, the Party looks less like
it is in charge and more like it is fire-fighting.
In fact, under Xi, the CPC has sharpened its battle against Western
norms and ideas and is taking this practically to the level of an existential
issue. To this end, the CPC is combining its Marxist-Leninist heritage
with supposed Chinese traditional values that favour hierarchy and order
in society and abroad to try and prevail against Western liberal ideals and
the international order dominated by the West. Hitherto, this conflict
with the West was evident usually only when reading between the lines of
Chinese statements and actions. At the 19th National Congress of the
CPC, even if a supposedly domestic affair, Xi appears to have more for-
mally and explicitly acknowledged this challenge to the West by, among
other things, “offer[ing] Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach to solv-
ing the problems facing mankind” (Xi 2017).
Xi appears to believe the centennial goals of building “a moderately
prosperous society in all respects” and “a modern socialist country that is
prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious” by
2021 and 2049 respectively (Xinhua 2017) can be realized through eco-
nomic measures, anti-corruption struggles and ‘harmony’ among the peo-
ple—obedience, in other words, to the diktats of the Party. The dominant
narrative of the political centrality of the CPC to China’s future is accom-
panied by a reduction of space for dissent and pushing of strong and insen-
sitive efforts at homogenization and assimilation of minority ethnic groups.
The 2021 goal is of ensuring “that China’s development improves the
lives of all its people, particularly those who are below or near the coun-
try’s poverty line” (Xinhua 2017). But even China’s ethnic minorities are
today reasonably economically well off after four decades of reforms. If
there is still poverty in China, it is not entirely due to economic reasons
but because of the way economic development is promoted in an unequal
manner, and in the case of the minorities, also because it is promoted
without sensitivity to their identity or cultural concerns.
1 ‘NATIONAL REJUVENATION’ AS PANACEA FOR CHINA’S DOMESTIC… 9
1
While this chapter and others use the expression “East Sea”, the more commonly used
name internationally is the “South China Sea”. The “East Sea” is the preferred usage in
Vietnam.
10 J. T. JACOB AND HOANG THE ANH
into the Vietnamese exclusive economic zone by the Chinese oil platform
Haiyang Shiyou 981, which led to significant tensions in the Sino-
Vietnamese relationship. Beijing has been at it again since July 2019 with
the Chinese Geological Survey vessel group Haiyang Dizhi 8 repeatedly
violating Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in the
south of the East Sea (Vu 2019). These Chinese actions raise the question
of whether China really seeks to develop peacefully as Xi stated in his
Report at the CPC’s 19th National Congress.
At the same time, the strong economic rationale for China’s expanded
political and military presence worldwide cannot be denied. China has
economic interests including the flow of its energy and other raw materials
supplies and trade across the globe that justify its security concerns and the
need to build up political and military capabilities to guard against poten-
tial threats from unstable polities as well as perceived threats such as the
US or India.
It is also a fact that that China’s extensive—and illegitimate—claims on
various features in the East Sea are the result of the narrative of the ‘cen-
tury of humiliation’ so heavily promoted by the CPC at home. While in
the past, China did not have the capability to enforce these claims, it never
actually ever let up on them. It also engaged in substantial diplomacy with
the countries of Southeast Asia and with Japan lulling these countries into
a false sense of security that somehow China had set aside or was not inter-
ested in enforcing these claims. But the ‘century of humiliation’ narrative
also has consequences in that the CPC itself cannot now not seek recom-
pense for the ‘humiliation’ or reclaim what is ‘rightfully’ China’s when it
actually has the capabilities to attempt to do so. Thus, it is that the Chinese
have—as part of the process of ‘national rejuvenation’—illegally occupied
and reclaimed and built up several features with the help of its commercial
and naval might and appear to have no intention of ever exiting these areas
no matter how many freedom of navigation operations the US or other
foreign navies might engage in.
It is important to note, however, that China does not seek to maintain
its claims by force alone. It also works assiduously to shape narratives and
histories in its neighbourhood and around the world subtly or otherwise
in its own favour. For instance, the great Ming dynasty admiral, Zheng
He’s voyages to the Indian Ocean are now recast as peaceful missions of
friendship aimed at bolstering trade and cultural ties than viewed as the
expeditionary voyages displaying Chinese power that they were in reality.
Indeed, for the CPC, all history is political. Historical narratives are con-
1 ‘NATIONAL REJUVENATION’ AS PANACEA FOR CHINA’S DOMESTIC… 11
economic development policies both because of the need to fulfil the cen-
tennial goals and because China’s major foreign economic initiatives and
strategies require enormous resources and tools for implementation.
Manoranjan Mohanty, in Chap. 4, underlines what he calls the ‘success
trap’ afflicting China’s and Xi Jinping’s political and economic initiatives.
China’s economic successes have been accompanied by enormous social,
political and environmental problems, as well as increasing income inequal-
ity, regional disparity and corruption. These are systemic problems arising
from the economic reforms that started in 1978; but to their credit,
China’s leaders have recognized many of these issues over the past decades
and initiated some measures to address them. Despite their efforts, prob-
lems persist—increasing social and regional inequality, environmental deg-
radation, social alienation, declining freedoms and persistent corruption,
among others because China’s current reform path is ultimately incompat-
ible with the type of actions needed to tackle these problems.
In Chap. 5, Jabin T. Jacob examines the many political considerations
at the centre of the CPC’s economic reforms agenda. The world at large
has tended to focus on China’s economic prowess, its large domestic mar-
ket and of late, its rising international economic heft as expressed in such
outreach economic projects as the BRI. But for the CPC itself, the central
focus has always been to use its economic strength to ensure domestic
stability and the continuation in power of the Party. This chapter, there-
fore, looks at the Chinese leadership’s views of the Chinese economy as
gleaned from prominent reports and speeches and what these say of their
views, including apprehensions, about the state of affairs of the Chinese
economy and the implications for the position and legitimacy of the CPC.
The Chinese military is a key guarantor of the power of the CPC
given that the PLA is the Party’s army rather than that of the PRC. In
Chap. 6, Bui Thi Thu Hien looks at Chinese military reforms since the
18th CPC National Congress and the additional measures proclaimed
at the 19th Congress. She finds that China’s current round of military
reforms is dramatic in nature with ambitions of turning the Chinese
military into one of the strongest forces in the world, capable of multi-
terrain combat and of becoming the world’s most powerful naval force
in order to control distant waters. The chapter looks at the national and
international contexts before China as it carries out a series of policies
and measures to strongly promote military reform and also assesses the
relationship between the CPC and the PLA in the process. The attempt
14 J. T. JACOB AND HOANG THE ANH
is to clarify if since the 19th Party Congress, it is ‘the Party that controls
the gun’, or if the military has gained an edge in the relationship.
The next section of the book looks at China’s neighbourhood policies
with a specific focus on regions in China’s immediate neighbourhood.
The section opens with Chap. 7 in the book on trends in Chinese foreign
policy in South Asia by Prashant Kumar Singh. Looking at both the 19th
Party Congress in October 2017 and the 13th National People’s Congress
in March 2018 together, he argued there is a radical shift in Chinese for-
eign policy under Xi Jinping in terms of China’s national identity, grand
strategic vision and the nature of its international identification with the
world. China is finally shedding its old hesitation and staking its claim to a
leadership role in the international order. This chapter argues that although
it is East Asia that is receiving international attention, with reference to
China’s foreign policy assertion under Xi, South Asia has been equally
affected by this assertiveness, if not more so. China-South Asia relations
have generally been studied within the localized contexts of individual
bilateral relationships or India-China relations. However, wider South
Asia is also equally a testing ground for China’s grand-strategic vision and
ambitions under Xi especially through the BRI, and this in turn has impli-
cations for India-China bilateral relations.
Hoang The Anh in Chap. 8 argues that the focus of China’s foreign
policy actions in Southeast Asia is on implementing the BRI and ensuring
that the region is divided in its response to Chinese provocations in the
East Sea. Beijing is establishing a global network of partners, and building
a so-called ‘community of common destiny’ with Southeast Asia as a cen-
tral focus. China has continued its tough stance on disputes in the East Sea
even as it has used economic diplomacy and soft power to mollify or win
over the countries of the region. Given the strong economic dependencies
and other socio-cultural factors accompanying the greater economic inte-
gration of the region with China, Chinese policies are likely to have far-
reaching impact on Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific in general.
Without doubt, China’s relationship with the US is the world’s most
important bilateral relationship and Chap. 9 by Cu Chi Loi looks at
it in detail. He argues that with the rapid modernization of its naval
forces and the launch of the BRI, China has accelerated disputes with
countries in its near seas and unveiled its ambition to control the Indo-
Pacific region. The Donald Trump administration in the US has asserted
that China is a strategic competitor, challenging America’s power,
1 ‘NATIONAL REJUVENATION’ AS PANACEA FOR CHINA’S DOMESTIC… 15
Conclusion
China’s approach to securing political and security interests globally is
based on a whole-of-the-system approach in which the political, commer-
cial, security and diplomatic actors work together. This is not to say that
18 J. T. JACOB AND HOANG THE ANH
the Chinese get it right or things go smoothly for them every time. There
are mistakes that are frequently made and often huge financial losses are
incurred but there is also a great deal of learning from these mistakes and
the ability to quickly adapt as well as change course when the decision is
finally made. In any case, no great power ever reached its position or
remains in its position without taking risks and making mistakes. Thus,
China’s domestic politics and its external actions cannot be studied in
watertight compartments but need to be considered together as this vol-
ume has tried to do.
As China’s influence rises globally and its presence becomes more
entrenched across domains of politics, economic activity, traditional and
non-traditional security and science and technology, how it proceeds to
use this influence vis-à-vis other countries will also be based on the
CPC’s confidence and capacities. Given that both the basis of China’s rise
in recent decades and the strength of the narrative of the ‘century of
humiliation’ have their roots in China’s linkages with the rest of the world,
it is also natural to assume that the confidence of the CPC depends also on
how it views the international order and China’s place in it as much as on
its relations with the Chinese people. In effect, the CPC’s brand of politics
is one in which it seeks greater space and acceptance globally of what it
deems are Chinese interests on behalf of the Chinese people while at home
it increasingly seeks legitimacy on the basis of China’s ability to establish
and promote its rights and standing abroad. The problem is that this is an
ever-tightening circle in a situation of global economic downturn and ris-
ing protectionism that also affect the Chinese economy and where China’s
leaders continue to believe that their own political legitimacy vis-à-vis the
Chinese people is far from secure. The consequences of these develop-
ments and realities in China and the world and the perceptions that arise
from them for the Chinese people and their leaders and their responses
need to be understood better for they will also increasingly impact the rest
of the world.
References
Cai, Jane. 2017. “Forget privatisation, Xi has other big plans for bloated state
firms”, South China Morning Post. 6 September. https://www.scmp.com/
news/china/economy/article/2109943/how-china-making-its-state-firm-
dinosaurs-bigger-and-richer
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