This item is in: Chandos > Asian studies > China

Yunnan-A Chinese Bridgehead to Asia: A case study of China’s political and economic relations with its neighbours

Tim Summers, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Chandos Asian Studies Series No. 50

Yunnan is one of China's most strategically important regions, occupying a critical area where it serves as a bridgehead between the rest of the country and the diverse and complicated economies and polities of south and southeast Asia. Tim Summers has intimate experience of working in the region and has produced an excellent, readable and comprehensive study, locating this ethnically rich province in its historic and regional context, but then using Yunnan to illustrate the complex interdependencies of provinces in modern China and the ways in which they relate to the central government, to other provinces, and to the wider world. An important and rewarding new study.
Kerry Brown, University of Sydney

 - offers a new perspective on Yunnan
 - contains historical depth: understanding the background and developments over time means that this ‘China watching’ book will not date quickly
 - takes a provincial view of China’s international relations
 - based on a combination of academic research and personal experience

The Chinese Government’s five-year strategy for social and economic development to 2015 includes the aim of making the southwestern province of Yunnan a bridgehead for ‘opening the country’ to southeast Asia and south Asia. Yunnan - A Chinese Bridgehead to Asia traces the dynamic process which has led to this policy goal, a process through which Yunnan is being repositioned from a southwestern periphery of the People’s Republic of China to a ‘bridgehead’ between China and its regional neighbours. It shows how this has been expressed in ideas and policy frameworks, involvement in regional institutions, infrastructure development, and changing trade and investment flows, from the 1980s to the present.

Detailing the wider context of the changes in China's global interactions, especially in Asia, the book uses Yunnan's case to demonstrate the extent of provincial agency in global interactions in reform-era China, and provides new insights into both China’s relationships with its Asian neighbours and the increasingly important economic engagement between developing countries.

Readership: Scholars and practitioners with interests in China’s international relations and regional developments.

£85.00 / US$145.00 / €100.00

An e-book version of this title will be available from Chandos Publishing Online. To view the current titles available visit Chandos Publishing Online

About the author

Tim Summers writes on the politics, economy, and international relations of contemporary China. He is a Senior Consulting Fellow with Chatham House in London, teaches at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and advises corporates and investors on China. Tim holds a PhD in Chinese Studies from CUHK, and an MA from the University of Cambridge. He was British Consul-General in Chongqing from 2004 to 2007, when he traveled extensively in southwest China, including in Yunnan.

Titles which may also be of interest:
Solving Disputes for Regional Cooperation and Development in the South China Sea
China’s Capital Markets
Internet Law in China
Multinational Corporation Subsidiaries in China
China’s Foreign Policy
China’s Venture Capital Market

Contents

Introduction: why Yunnan?
 - Previous studies on Yunnan
 - A provincial case study of China’s political and economic relations
 - Structure of the book
 - Notes

China in a changing world
 - Western China and the global economy
 - China and its Asian neighbours
 - Provincial agency in China’s global interactions
 - Notes

Yunnan’s history in regional perspective
 - From Dian kingdom to Mongol conquest
 - From Ming integration to ‘inward rebalancing’ in the Qing
 - Late Qing decline and European incursions
 - Reform, revolution and the war period in Yunnan
 - Yunnan from 1949
 - Notes

Repositioning Yunnan: ideas and policy
 - Early ideas of ‘opening up’ in Yunnan
 - Turning point: 1992
 - Developing ideas and policy
 - The ‘great international transit route’ and CAFTA
 - National belonging
 - Repositioning continued
 - Conclusion
 - Acknowledgements
 - Notes

Yunnan and regional institutions
 - Early regional engagement: Greater Mekong Subregion
 - Yunnan and BCIM
 - New dynamics in the region(s) – CAFTA and a revitalised GMS
 - Guangxi and regional institutions
 - Yunnan and domestic regionalism
 - Conclusion
 - Notes

Infrastructure development
 - The early 1990s: limited transport infrastructure
 - Transport infrastructure in 2001
 - Further developments: 2006 and beyond
 - Energy security and infrastructure development
 - Challenges: politics and international relations
 - Conclusion
 - Notes

From border trade to ‘going out’
 - New trends from 2001
 - ‘Going out’: outward investment from Yunnan
 - Domestic trade and investment
 - Conclusion
 - Notes

Conclusion
 - Provincial agency and ‘competitive internationalisation’
 - China, Asia and global political economy
 - Notes