Aller au contenu | Aller au menu | Recherche
2009/2 1989, a Watershed in Chinese History? | Special Feature
Wu Guoguang

A Shadow over Western Democracies

China's Political Use of Economic Power

p. 80-89

Ce document sera publié en ligne en texte intégral le 1 juin 2011.

Résumé

This paper investigates how China’s success in economic development negatively influences civil liberties and democracy as practiced in the West, and asks why the growing economic interdependence between China and the global economy enables China to intervene in the political conduct of leading democracies but not vice versa. Empirically, the paper examines cases of Chinese foreign relations behaviour in which China uses its economic connections with various leading industrial democracies to bend their international political behaviour regarding visits by the Dalai Lama. It also highlights how economic interests relating to the Chinese market make multinational corporations vulnerable to Beijing’s political pressure, and analyses why international capital is easily lured to cooperate with the Chinese repressive state to curb freedom in and outside China. It argues that the new political economy of globalisation in the post-Cold War era explains the rise of this kind of dictator’s diplomacy, and that post- Tiananmen China has greatly contributed to the shaping of a new political economy characterised by state-market collaboration in promoting material prosperity.

Pour citer cet article

Référence électronique

Wu Guoguang, « A Shadow over Western Democracies », China perspectives, n°2009/2, 2009, [En ligne], mis en ligne le 1 juin 2011. URL : http://chinaperspectives.revues.org/document4810.html. Consulté le 22 novembre 2009.

Auteur

Wu Guoguang

Chair in China and Asia-Pacific Relations at the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives, University of Victoria, Canada.

Articles du même auteur :
Kjeld Erik Brodsgaard and Zheng Yongnian (eds.), The Chinese Communist Party in Reform [Texte intégral]
Paru dans China perspectives, n°68, 2006
From the Great Rock to the Eastern Islet [Résumé]
Paru dans China perspectives, n°2008/1, 2008