China's Integration in Asia: Economic Security and Strategic Issues
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China’s Integration in Asia: Economic Security and Strategic Issues R. Ash Curzon Press, Richmond, UK, 2002, xii, 295pp. ISBN 0-7007-1191-0. Asian Business & Management (2003) 2, 293–295. doi:10.1057/palgrave.abm.9200050
Asia is a regional economic powerhouse, including some of the world’s biggest as well as unprecedentedly vibrant economies. Within Asia, the People’s Republic of China is the fastest rising star and, according to some measures, its GDP has already surpassed Japan’s as the world’s second largest. Given China’s rapid economic ascent, the nature of its role within the region is thus a critical issue, with profound implications not just for regional but also for international stability. A book on China’s integration into Asia and its implications for the economic security and international strategy not only of China but of other international actors as well therefore addresses an important topic. China’s Integration in Asia: Economic Security and Strategic Issues (2002) does so in a collection of 12 papers, edited by Robert Ash. It is the second publication resulting from meetings of the European Union-China Academic Network (ECAN); the first, published in 1999, focused on China’s economic security (Draguhn and Ash, 1999). Contributors to this volume come principally from Europe, but also include experts from Asia and the United States, and are drawn from both the scholarly and policy-making communities. Essays explore a broad range of issues, from social security in China, to food and energy security, to various aspects of China’s military security. The book’s focus is timely and compelling and its contributors are authorities on their respective topics; however, a number of problems frustrate its potential. Its very brief preface is no substitute for an introductory chapter laying out the key questions it will explore and defining a conceptual context for the essays it assembles. Without such an integrating framework for the papers the volume gathers, it is at times unclear how each connects to the book’s themes. For example, a fascinating chapter by Elisabeth Croll and Ku Hok-bun, one of the finest pieces of research in the book, looks at social security in a single Chinese village. The authors provide evidence that the government’s declining role in the delivery of social services in China’s rural communities is raising questions among villagers about the legitimacy of Communist rule. However, while it is possible to imagine possible implications of this development for China’s role in Asia, the authors do not explicitly address this issue. Nikos Alexandratos and Jelle Bruinsma, in their fine contribution investigating long-term prospects in world cereals trade, entitled ‘Asia’s Food and the World’, do seek to clearly connect their essay to the Asian Business & Management 2003 2
Book Reviews
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book’s topic. They define this as the ‘regional economic security of China and Asia’ (p. 76), however, leaving aside the question of how their subject relates to China’s integration in the region.
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