Overview

Is China's rise a threat to international order? Fractured China shows that it depends on what one means by 'China', for China is not the monolithic, unitary actor that many assume. Forty years of state transformation – the fragmentation, decentralisation and internationalisation of party-state apparatuses – have profoundly changed how its foreign policy is made and implemented. Today, Chinese behaviour abroad is often not the product of a coherent grand strategy, but results from a sometimes-chaotic struggle for power and resources among contending politico-business interests, within a surprisingly permissive Chinese-style regulatory state. Presenting a path-breaking new analytical framework, Fractured China transforms the central debate in International Relations and provides new tools for scholars and policymakers seeking to understand and respond to twenty-first century rising powers. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in China and Southeast Asia, it includes three major case studies – the South China Sea, non-traditional security cooperation, and development financing–to demonstrate the framework's explanatory power.

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9781009048460

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'This exemplary work provides fabulous analyses on China's behaviours in international security and financial engagements. It should be a must-read for anyone who wants to gain more insights into the inner workings of China's foreign policy making and the impacts on China's partners and rivals.' Li Mingjiang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 'This book is a long overdue and convincing corrective to recent studies of China's rise that assume a coherent grand design by an all-powerful Chinese state, which would inevitably lead it to the trap of conflict or the temptation of world domination, or both. The reality, as Fractured China argues, is that China is no unitary actor and messy politics and competing domestic interests shape its foreign policy behaviour, whether in the long or short term. And outstanding book.' Amitav Acharya, American University, Washington DC, and Author of The End of American World Order (2018) 'In this provocative new book, Jones and Hameiri break open the black box of the state to understand China's foreign policy in both traditional and nontraditional spheres. Building on the idea of China as a regulatory state – which highlights the fragmentation and decentralization of relevant actors – they show that the policymaking process is much more complex than commonly believed.' M. Taylor Fravel, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) '… a must-read contribution to the study of how China's domestic politics affect its foreign policy… This is not only an important academic contribution but also closely relevant to contemporary debates on China's attitudes towards the current international order… Jones and Hameiri deserve high praise for their innovative theoretical framework… Fractured China also has significant policy implications, and deserves careful reading by all those interested in Chinese foreign policies.' Chenchao Lian, E-International Relations 'fascinating … powerful... a breath of fresh air, providing rich empirical data and analytical sophistication' Jane Hayward, Critical Asian Studies

'This exemplary work provides fabulous analyses on China's behaviours in international security and financial engagements. It should be a must-read for anyone who wants to gain more insights into the inner workings of China's foreign policy making and the impacts on China's partners and rivals.' Li Mingjiang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 'This book is a long overdue and convincing corrective to recent studies of China's rise that assume a coherent grand design by an all-powerful Chinese state, which would inevitably lead it to the trap of conflict or the temptation of world domination, or both. The reality, as Fractured China argues, is that China is no unitary actor and messy politics and competing domestic interests shape its foreign policy behaviour, whether in the long or short term. And outstanding book.' Amitav Acharya, American University, Washington DC, and Author of The End of American World Order (2018) 'In this provocative new book, Jones and Hameiri break open the black box of the state to understand China's foreign policy in both traditional and nontraditional spheres. Building on the idea of China as a regulatory state - which highlights the fragmentation and decentralization of relevant actors - they show that the policymaking process is much more complex than commonly believed.' M. Taylor Fravel, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

'This exemplary work provides fabulous analyses on China's behaviours in international security and financial engagements. It should be a must-read for anyone who wants to gain more insights into the inner workings of China's foreign policy making and the impacts on China's partners and rivals.' Li Mingjiang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Author Information

Lee Jones is Reader in International Politics at Queen Mary University of London. His other books include ASEAN, Sovereignty and Intervention in Southeast Asia (2012), Societies Under Siege: Exploring How International Economic Sanctions (Do Not) Work (2015), and The Political Economy of Southeast Asia: Politics and Markets under Hyperglobalisation (2020). Shahar Hameiri is Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Associate Professor of International Politics in the School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland. Among his recent books are Governing Borderless Threats (2015), International Intervention and Local Politics (2017), and The Political Economy of Southeast Asia (2020).

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