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The Foreign Relations of Greater China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Michael Yahuda
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Extract

Greater China refers in the first instance to the close economic ties of trade, technology transfers and investment that have emerged since the second half of the 1980s linking Taiwan and Hong Kong with the rapid development of southern China. But it also suggests that the economic links are buttressed by familial, social, historical and cultural ties of a peculiarly Chinese kind. These ties and links have developed between different Chinese communities whose political divergences had until recently precluded such a development. Consequently the emergence of Greater China poses new challenges and opportunities to the political identities of its three constituent members and to the conduct of relations between them. Greater China and its possible future trajectory affects and is also affected by the rest of the Asia-Pacific region including the major powers of the United States and Japan as well as those in the immediate vicinity of South-east Asia.

Type
Greater China
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 136 , December 1993 , pp. 687 - 710
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1993

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References

1. For an account of these see Bull, Hedley, The Anarchical Society (London: Macmillan, 1977CrossRefGoogle Scholar) and for an account of its spread to the rest of the world see Watson, A. and Bull, H., The Expansion of International Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984)Google Scholar.

2. See for example the seven papers in the June 1992 Report, “American Economic Relations with Greater China: Challenges for the 1990s”, by the American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C.

3. For an account of some of the proposals made by Chinese scholars in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland see Kao, Charng, “A ‘Greater China economic sphere’: reality and prospects”, Issues and Studies, 11 1992, pp. 49–64Google Scholar. The article also presents several economic arguments to demonstrate difficulties in formalizing the economic relationship in other than very loose terms.

4. Interview in Beijing, 10 August 1992.

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6. Vice-Director of the Taiwan Office, Sun Xiaoyu, for example, told me that on several occasions he had met senior officials from Taiwan in Hong Kong without this becoming public knowledge.

7. The figures are drawn from Baldinger, Pamela, “The birth of Greater China”, The China Business Review, 05–06 1992, pp. 13–17Google Scholar.

8. For a detailed account of the negotiations leading up to the Joint Declaration of 1984 see Cottrell, Robert, The End of Hong Kong, The Secret Diplomacy of Imperial Retreat (London: John Murray, 1993)Google Scholar.

9. The above analysis draws on the author's “Hong Kong's future: Sino-British negotiations, perceptions, organization and political culture”, International Affairs, April 1993.

10. This was made abundantly clear at the 14th Party Congress held in Beijing as Patten was making his controversial proposals in Hong Kong on 7 October 1992. No reference was made in the Report to political reform such as the possible separation of Party and government envisaged at the previous Congress. Instead the emphasis was on the necessity of preserving Party dominance during a period of rapid economic change.

11. For Qian's remarks see Xinhua, 9 July 1993 and for a more hard hitting response Ta Kung Pao (Hong Kong) editorial, both in BBC, Summary of World Broadcasts (SWB), FE/1737, pp. A2/1–2.

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14. Ibid.

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24. Interview with Sun Xiaoyu.

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28. See statements of alarm by the Mainland Affairs Council about capital outflow to the mainland of 17 May and 2 August 1993 in SWB FE/1693, p. A2/3 and FE/1760, p. Al/6 respectively. See also the caution by the Board of Trade of 29 April 1993 in FE/1676 A2/5.

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33. See “Would Beijing dare invade?” Newsweek, 23 December 1991, p. 36, and the claim by Defence Minister Chen Li-an on 28 October 1992 that Taiwan's present air force could repel any mainland attack, reported by Central News Agency in SWB FE/1530, pp. B/16–17, 5 November 1992.

34. For analysis of the former see Saich, Tony, “The 14th Party Congress: a programme for authoritarian rule”, The China Quarterly, No. 132 (12 1992), pp. 1136–1160Google Scholar. For an account of the latter see Baum, Julian, “The hollow centre: political result undermines President's power”, FEER, 0701 1993, pp. 14–15Google Scholar.

35. Author's interview with Legco member Huang Chenya of the UDHK, 21 August 1992.

36. For a clear account see Kau, Michael Ying-mao, “The ROC's new foreign policy strategy”, in Simon, Denis Fred and Kau, Michael Ying-mao (eds.), Taiwan: Beyond the Economic Miracle (London & New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1992) pp. 237–255Google Scholar.

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