Becoming a normative power? China's Mekong agenda in the era of Xi Jinping. (1st November 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Song, Yao; Qiao-Franco, Guangyu; Liu, Tianyang
• Is Part Of: International affairs. Volume 97:Number 6(2021)
• Page Start: 1709
• Page End: 1726
• Publication Date: 2021-11-01
• Subjects: China's foreign policy -- Mekong region -- normative power -- Belt and Road Initiative -- peripheral diplomacy -- Xi Jinping; International relations -- Periodicals; World politics -- Periodicals; 327.05
• DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiab168
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0020-5850

Abstract

Abstract : The authors investigate China's power in the Mekong region, through their influence over norms and attitudes. During Xi Jinping's rule this power has come from both top-down norm diffusion by elites and bottom-up diffusion of ideas from China's presence in the region and the exchange of goods, aid and more. Contrary to popular belief, these norms have not been accepted by all. Their research adds to theories on normative power and diplomacy, and nuances perceptions of Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific. Abstract: Maintaining robust diplomatic relationships with neighbouring countries in the Mekong region has become strategically critical to China. Since President Xi Jinping took office, China has been renovating normative power in the Mekong region, endeavouring to socialize the Mekong countries into accepting normative Chinese concepts, such as 'community of shared destiny', by mobilizing and reconfiguring their material and normative recourses. This article argues that China's normative power stems from two primary mechanisms: 1) an organized, top-down diffusion driven by political elites, involving inter-governmental dialogues, socialization via bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms, and negotiations with countries co-opted into China-led connectivity and infrastructure initiatives; 2) a bottom-up diffusion of ideas from practices (i.e. exchange of goods, trade, aid) and the physical presence of China in the Mekong region, exemplified by the massive scale of infrastructure widely constructed in the region. Taken together, China's expanded normative engagement in the Mekong subregion is comprised of multiple, oscillating modes of normative production that have been 'synchronized' across riparian countries with varied geoeconomic and geopolitical circumstances. Our findings suggest that while normative Chinese discourses have been accepted by the ruling classes of certain Mekong countries, China's attempts to build normative power have been largely shunned by the civil societies in the region.