Attempts to integrate the Pacific regional economy accelerated sharply with the formation of the regionwide, official Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in 1989. This book probes into the distinctive process of regional cooperation in Asia-Pacific by focusing on the roles and perspectives of China, Japan, and Southeast Asian states. Asian developments shaping the new post-hegemonic global political economy challenge traditional models in international relations, which is here challenged to take East Asia seriously.
Using riot police to break up a big demonstration is a familiar occurrence in many parts of the world, including China. But all protest control does not involve the use of force, nor is repression always directed at large groups of people assembled in one location. Some repression rests on psychological rather than physical coercion and is aimed at individuals, often in their homes or nearby. This type of repression may be carried out by people with only a loose connection to the state's coercive apparatus, such as relatives, friends or neighbors of the target who work for the government or receive benefits from it. "Relational repression" is labor intensive and a sign of a high-capacity state that uses multiple levers to suppress contention, but has limited reach and remains insecure about its ability to maintain social stability. It builds on Maoist and dynastic techniques of control and aims to extend state penetration into a marketized society whose members have increasingly emancipated themselves from direct dependence on the government. Relational repression often alienates both the agents of repression and their targets. But it can, at times, be effective in demobilizing resistance or preventing a person from taking part in protest.
Using riot police to break up a big demonstration is a familiar occurrence in many parts of the world, including China. But all protest control does not involve the use of force, nor is repression always directed at large groups of people assembled in one location. Some repression rests on psychological rather than physical coercion and is aimed at individuals, often in their homes or nearby. This type of repression may be carried out by people with only a loose connection to the state's coercive apparatus, such as relatives, friends, or neighbors of the target who work for the government or receive benefits from it. "Relational repression" is labor intensive and a sign of a high-capacity state that uses multiple levers to suppress contention, but has limited reach and remains insecure about its ability to maintain social stability. It builds on Maoist and dynastic techniques of control and aims to extend state penetration into a marketized society whose members have increasingly emancipated themselves from direct dependence on the government. Relational repression oft en alienates both the agents of repression and their targets. But it can, at times, be effective in demobilizing resistance or preventing a person from taking part in protest.
In spring 2005, villagers in Dongyang County, Zhejiang were unhappy. For four years they had been complaining about pollution emitted by 13 factories located in the Zhuxi Chemical Park, but nothing had been done. So they set up a tent encampment to block delivery of supplies to the factories. At first, they employed restrained tactics, including going about daily life in the tents, badgering cadres sent to demobilize them, and kowtowing. After a harsh repression produced hundreds of injuries and left dozens of damaged vehicles and other evidence of police action strewn about, the tent-sitters switched to more aggressive tactics, including denouncing local leaders, carrying out mock funerals, interrogating factory owners and ransacking the homes of 'traitors'. The authorities' ill-considered and poorly-timed repression led to tactical escalation, helped draw thousands of people to the scene, and ultimately resulted in the chemical park being closed. This episode speaks to the 'dissent–repression nexus' and suggests that repression can be counterproductive when it encourages protesters to ratchet up their tactics and a 'protest spectacle' ensues. In today's China, striking displays and theatrical performances, especially in the wake of a crackdown, can attract an audience, bring in financial support and create a carnival-like atmosphere in which popular acclaim, the breakdown of social order and the inversion of power hierarchies grants protesters leverage and induces the authorities to make concessions.
When faced with homeowners who refuse to accept appropriation of their property, local authorities often use family ties to extend the state's reach. To complete urban renewal, municipal demolition offices turn to resisters' relatives who work for government bureaus, state-owned factories, schools and hospitals. Under pressure and the threat of sanctions, many work-unit members agree to pressure their relatives into signing demolition agreements, often by tapping into "feelings of affection" and emotional blackmail. Beyond emptying a neighborhood, "harmonious demolition" has many consequences: it can turn relatives against each other, lead to divorce, and produce disillusionment and anger. Although "demolition by implicating family members" was banned in 2010, it continues. Using vertical ties to pressure unit members and horizontal ties to influence relatives does not herald a softer authoritarianism, but instead alienates homeowners and work-unit members alike.
China scholars have explored shirking by local officials and "effective implementation," but fewer have examined polices that are implemented with great enthusiasm. The Microfinance for Women Program fits in this last category. Especially in Sichuan, targets for lending were set by the province, exceeded, raised by cities and counties, and then exceeded again. The immediate reason that loan-making took off in 2012 was the relaxation of collateral requirements that shifted the risk of defaults away from local authorities. But the surge in lending also had deeper roots in the policy's vagueness, institutional incentives, bureaucratic pressure, and local fiscal and organizational interests. Although enthusiastic implementation occurred (and generated much-needed revenues for local governments), the history of the program also shows that it can be halted, as the authorities did when instability loomed and they reversed bureaucratic pressure by calling for local cost-sharing and introducing uncertainty over whether interest subsidies would continue.
Many China scholars have explored shirking by local officials and effective implementation, but fewer have examined polices that are implemented with great enthusiasm. The Microfinance for Women Programme fits in this last category. Especially in Sichuan, targets for lending were set by the province, exceeded, raised by cities and counties, and then exceeded again. The immediate reason that lending took off in 2012 was the relaxation of collateral requirements that shifted the risk of defaults away from local authorities. But the surge in lending also had deeper roots in the policy's vagueness, institutional incentives, bureaucratic pressure, and local fiscal and organizational interests. Although enthusiastic implementation occurred (and generated much-needed revenues for local governments), the history of the programme also shows that it can be halted, as was the case when instability loomed and the authorities reversed bureaucratic pressure by calling for local cost-sharing and introducing uncertainty over whether interest subsidies would continue.
With the acceleration of China's informatization process, our party and government take a substantive stride in advancing development and application of digital technology, which promotes the evolution of e-government and its informatization. Meanwhile, as a service mode based on innovative resources, cloud computing may connect huge pools together to provide a variety of IT services, and has become one relatively mature technical pattern with further studies and massive practical applications. Based on cloud computing technology and national e-government network platform, "National Natural Resources and Geospatial Database (NRGD)" project integrated and transformed natural resources and geospatial information dispersed in various sectors and regions, established logically unified and physically dispersed fundamental database and developed national integrated information database system supporting main e-government applications. Cross-sector e-government applications and services are realized to provide long-term, stable and standardized natural resources and geospatial fundamental information products and services for national egovernment and public users.
With the acceleration of China's informatization process, our party and government take a substantive stride in advancing development and application of digital technology, which promotes the evolution of e-government and its informatization. Meanwhile, as a service mode based on innovative resources, cloud computing may connect huge pools together to provide a variety of IT services, and has become one relatively mature technical pattern with further studies and massive practical applications. Based on cloud computing technology and national e-government network platform, "National Natural Resources and Geospatial Database (NRGD)" project integrated and transformed natural resources and geospatial information dispersed in various sectors and regions, established logically unified and physically dispersed fundamental database and developed national integrated information database system supporting main e-government applications. Cross-sector e-government applications and services are realized to provide long-term, stable and standardized natural resources and geospatial fundamental information products and services for national egovernment and public users.
