Miwa Hirono: Following China's International Relations

2019/01/14

It has been 20 years since I first decided to study international relations with a focus on China in Professor Kanji Akagi's seminar while a student at Keio University. As China's international status has changed, my research themes have also evolved. What I have consistently focused on is the question of how dominant ideas and values in international relations are perceived by "others"—that is, the people who are on the receiving end of those values. My first theme was how China and Japan understood the concept of sovereignty imposed by Western nations during the 19th-century era of imperialism. My doctoral dissertation theme was how values such as democracy, human rights, and sometimes Christianity, which international NGOs from Western countries sought to spread in China, were understood by people in western China during the early 2000s, a time when much of the region was still struggling with poverty. In 2007, the year I obtained my PhD, China's "Going Out" (Zouchuqu) strategy had progressed significantly, and China's economic power came to be recognized with great expectations in developing regions. Consequently, my new theme became how China's values of economic development and political and social stability are perceived in those developing regions. Following the trajectory of China's international development, my current research cannot be completed simply by understanding Chinese policy; it must inevitably be conducted outside of China as well. To date, I have interviewed people of various positions and social statuses in Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Nepal, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Liberia about their views on China.

In current Japanese and U.S. discourse, the "China threat" theory is most prominent, but when you actually interview people in various countries about their views on China, they are truly a "hundred flowers blooming." While there are many voices hoping that China will contribute actively not only to the economy but also to international politics, there is also strong distrust in countries like Myanmar that have always had to deal with China as a major power. While many commentators talk about the shift of leadership and power in international politics from the U.S. to China, something indispensable to leadership—namely, followership—tends to be forgotten. Leadership only exists because there are people who are followers. The perspectives of these followers provide us with immeasurable insights as we live through an era of transition in the international order. International relations are not just relations of power. They are relations between human beings.