The external relations of China’s provinces

• Main Author: TANG, Tuck Hong James
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2001
• Subjects: Asian History; Asian Studies
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2156
• Institution: Singapore Management University

China’s provincial-level units have emerged as important political and economic actors since 1978. Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms and open-door policy (kaifang/zhengce) have not simply decentralized economic power from the central government to the provinces and other localities, but also increased the latter’s involvement in China’s foreign affairs. Not only have such developments posed enormous challenges for the management of China’s foreign affairs system. but they have also generated a new dynamic in central provincial interaction, because the provinces have heightened their participation in the global economy and forged their own international links. This increased assertiveness of China’s provinces in the 19905 has significant implications for the study of China's international behavior and foreign policy. Yet few scholars have systematically examined provincial involvement in external affairs, apart from a few studies on provincial patterns of foreign trade and on the prospect of China’s disintegration.2 in this chapter we analyze the nature, organization, and changing pattern of provincial external relations in the reform era, especially the 19905, as well as the political implications of these developments.