Description
Book SynopsisThe view that China has become increasingly assertive under President Xi Jinping is now a common trope in academic and media discourse. However, until the end of Xi Jinping’s first term in March 2018, China had been relatively restrained in its use of coercive economic measures. This is puzzling given the conventional belief among scholars and practitioners that sanctions are a middle ground between diplomatic and military/paramilitary action.
Using a wide range of methods and data — including in-depth interviews with 76 current and former politicians, policy-makers, diplomats, and commercial actors across 12 countries and 16 cities —
Sanctions with Chinese Characteristics: Rhetoric and Restraint in China’s Diplomacy examines the ways in which China had employed economic sanctions to further its political objectives, and the factors explaining China’s behaviour. This book provides a systematic investigation into the ways in which Chinese decisionmakers approached sanctions both at the United Nations Security Council and unilaterally, and shows how China’s longstanding sanctions rhetoric has had a constraining effect on its behaviour, resulting in its inability to employ sanctions in complete alignment with its immediate interests.
Trade Review"As anxiety over China’s presumed assertiveness continues to surge around the world, Poh’s book thus offers a compelling case that policymakers should explicitly call out Beijing’s hypocrisy when it deploys sanctions. This innovative policy implication, augmented by the book’s conceptual and methodological contributions, render this work a timely and important contribution to our understanding of China’s economic statecraft."
- James Reilly,
The China Quarterly, Volume 247, September 2021
"[...] Poh’s excellent study shows us that (for the most part) the PRC has up to this point been held back by fetters of its own making."
- Todd H. Hall,
Journal of Chinese Political Science, Vol. 27, Iss. 02
Table of ContentsList of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Chapter 1. The Puzzle of Chinese Sanctions
Chapter 2. On Sanctions and China
Chapter 3. When Does Talk Become Costly? International Audience Costs and China's Sanctions Behaviour
Chapter 4. Stigmatising Sanctions and China's Counter-Stigmatisation
Chapter 5. China and United Nations Security Council Sanctions
Chapter 6. China's Unilateral Sanctions: Eight Classic Cases Revisited
Chapter 7. Demystifying China's Sanctions Behaviour
Chapter 8. China's Sanctions Dilemma
Appendices
Bibliography
Index
