Interpreting China’s grand strategy: a case-study of China-Australia relations in Xi Jinping’s first term

Thesis

This thesis provides an original and rigorous interpretation of China’s grand strategy, through the case-study of China-Australia relations in Xi Jinping’s inaugural presidential term (March 2013 – March 2018). China’s re-emergence has elicited sustained debate in international relations since the country’s commencement of reform and opening-up, and increasingly so following Xi’s assumption of presidency in 2013. The plethora of literature in this field presents a spectrum of viewpoints: at one end, scholars characterise an ascending China as a fundamentally revisionist and dissatisfied challenger to the existing global order, established by the United States and its allies; at the other end, an opposing category contends that Beijing, in its re-emergence, could be peacefully integrated into the status-quo of international system.

Critically engaging in this debate, this study contributes an eclectic perspective – it argues that China’s grand strategy, during Xi’s first term, manifested a hybridity of status-quo and revisionist elements. The central argument is elucidated through analysing Beijing’s policies towards Australia, in three selected dimensions of Chinese grand strategy: economic policies, maritime policies and cultural/political policies. The analysis anchors on a combination of primary and secondary sources, consisting of original interviews, complemented by an intersection of official documents.

Within the context of China-Australia bilateral relations, this thesis concludes that China’s grand strategy under Xi exhibits miscellaneous and at times, contradictory, characteristics. The author illustrates this nuanced hybridity through three primary strategies, adopted by Beijing towards Canberra: coercive capabilities, consensual inducements and pursuit of legitimacy. In doing so, this study fills an important literature lacuna, by revealing how China, as a rising power, treats the pivotal middle power Australia. More broadly, this research advances the knowledge frontier on Chinese grand strategy, through transcending the conventional statusquo/revisionist bifurcation, thereby revealing a more complex and variegated form of Beijing’s strategic rationales than is often assumed.

Authors: Ji, C

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-x506ake9v
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: China; grand strategy; status-quo/revisionist hybridity; revisionism; China-Australia relations
• Subjects: International relations and culture