IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/glopol/v12y2021is4p69-79.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regime Complexity and Complex Foreign Policy: China in International Development Finance Governance

Author

Listed:
  • Hongying Wang

Abstract

This paper examines China’s involvement in the governance of international development finance (IDF), analyzes its approach to the IDF regime complex, and explains its strategic policy incoherence. It shows that in recent decades China has actively engaged with the elemental IDF regimes at multiple levels – global, regional, cross‐regional, subregional, and bilateral. It argues that the Chinese government has been strategically incoherent in its policy toward IDF governance, lending support to competing models and norms. China’s ‘forum linking’ strategy with regard to multilateral development banks has enhanced international cooperation while its unconventional bilateral development assistance programs have facilitated ‘forum shopping’ by the recipient countries, thus undermining the traditional IDF framework. There are multiple sources of China’s strategic policy incoherence. Besides the country’s multiple identities and complex interests, this paper highlights the impact of the fragmented nature of the regime complex and Chinese perception of this fragmentation.

Suggested Citation

  • Hongying Wang, 2021. "Regime Complexity and Complex Foreign Policy: China in International Development Finance Governance," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(S4), pages 69-79, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:glopol:v:12:y:2021:i:s4:p:69-79
    DOI: 10.1111/1758-5899.12935
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12935
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1758-5899.12935?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krasner, Stephen D., 1981. "Power structures and regional development banks," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 303-328, April.
    2. Hernandez, Diego, 2017. "Are “New” Donors Challenging World Bank Conditionality?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 529-549.
    3. Hong-Min Chun & Elijah N. Munyi & Heejin Lee, 2010. "South Korea as an emerging donor: Challenges and changes on its entering OECD|DAC," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(6), pages 788-802.
    4. Humphrey, Chris & Michaelowa, Katharina, 2019. "China in Africa: Competition for traditional development finance institutions?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 15-28.
    5. Eric Helleiner & Hongying Wang, 2018. "Limits to the BRICS’ challenge: credit rating reform and institutional innovation in global finance," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(5), pages 573-595, September.
    6. Samuel Brazys & Johan A. Elkink & Gina Kelly, 2017. "Bad neighbors? How co-located Chinese and World Bank development projects impact local corruption in Tanzania," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 227-253, June.
    7. May, Peter J., 1991. "Reconsidering Policy Design: Policies and Publics," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 187-206, April.
    8. Natalie Lichtenstein, 2019. "AIIB at Three: A Comparative and Institutional Perspective," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(4), pages 582-586, November.
    9. Hongying Wang, 2019. "The New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: China's Ambiguous Approach to Global Financial Governance," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(1), pages 221-244, January.
    10. Fearon, James D., 1994. "Domestic Political Audiences and the Escalation of International Disputes," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 88(3), pages 577-592, September.
    11. Muyang Chen, 2020. "State Actors, Market Games: Credit Guarantees and the Funding of China Development Bank," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 453-468, April.
    12. Gregory T. Chin & Kevin P. Gallagher, 2019. "Coordinated Credit Spaces: The Globalization of Chinese Development Finance," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(1), pages 245-274, January.
    13. Amandine Orsini, 2013. "Multi-Forum Non-State Actors: Navigating the Regime Complexes for Forestry and Genetic Resources," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 13(3), pages 34-55, August.
    14. Henning, C. Randall, 2017. "Tangled Governance: International Regime Complexity, the Troika, and the Euro Crisis," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198801801.
    15. Tsang, Eric W. K., 2014. "Old and New," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(03), pages 390-390, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dreher, Axel & Bluhm, Richard & Fuchs, Andreas & Parks, Bradley & Strange, Austin & Tierney, Michael, 2020. "Connective Financing - Chinese Infrastructure Projects and the Diffusion of Economic Activity in Developing Countries," CEPR Discussion Papers 14818, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Gong, Xue, 2021. "Logics of appropriateness: Explaining Chinese Financial Institutions’ weak supervision of overseas financing," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    3. Mitchell Watkins, 2022. "Undermining conditionality? The effect of Chinese development assistance on compliance with World Bank project agreements," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 667-690, October.
    4. Dreher, Axel & Fuchs, Andreas & Hodler, Roland & Parks, Bradley C. & Raschky, Paul A. & Tierney, Michael J., 2021. "Is Favoritism a Threat to Chinese Aid Effectiveness? A Subnational Analysis of Chinese Development Projects," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    5. Samuel Brazys & Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati, 2021. "Aid curse with Chinese characteristics? Chinese development flows and economic reforms," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 188(3), pages 407-430, September.
    6. Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati & Yuanxin Li & Samuel Brazys & Alexander Dukalskis, 2019. "Building Bridges or Breaking Bonds? The Belt and Road Initiative and Foreign Aid Competition," Working Papers 201906, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    7. Xia, Ying & Chen, Muyang, 2023. "The Janus face of stateness: China's development-oriented equity investments in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    8. Marson, Marta & Savin, Ivan, 2022. "Complementary or adverse? Comparing development results of official funding from China and traditional donors in Africa," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 189-206.
    9. Gehring, Kai & Kaplan, Lennart C. & Wong, Melvin H.L., 2022. "China and the World Bank—How contrasting development approaches affect the stability of African states," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Mandon, Pierre & Woldemichael, Martha Tesfaye, 2023. "Has Chinese aid benefited recipient countries? Evidence from a meta-regression analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    11. Ann-Sofie Isaksson & Dick Durevall, 2023. "Aid and institutions: Local effects of World Bank aid on perceived institutional quality in Africa," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 523-551, July.
    12. Cormier, Benjamin, 2023. "Chinese or western finance? Transparency, official credit flows, and the international political economy of development," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115294, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Kaya, Ayse & Kilby, Christopher & Kay, Jonathan, 2021. "Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as an instrument for Chinese influence? Supplementary versus remedial multilateralism," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    14. Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni & Oliver Westerwinter, 2022. "The global governance complexity cube: Varieties of institutional complexity in global governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 233-262, April.
    15. Cruzatti C., John & Dreher, Axel & Matzat, Johannes, 2023. "Chinese aid and health at the country and local level," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    16. Cheng, Si & Wang, Banban, 2023. "Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on China's overseas renewable energy development finance: Effects and features," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1036-1048.
    17. Martorano, Bruno & Metzger, Laura & Sanfilippo, Marco, 2020. "Chinese development assistance and household welfare in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    18. Dreher, Axel & Fuchs, Andreas & Hodler, Roland & Parks, Bradley C. & Raschky, Paul A. & Tierney, Michael J., 2019. "African leaders and the geography of China's foreign assistance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 44-71.
    19. Samuel Brazys & Johan A. Elkink, 2021. "“Aid for Trade” Effectiveness? Micro-level Evidence from Nepal," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(6), pages 1493-1513, December.
    20. Humphrey, Chris & Michaelowa, Katharina, 2019. "China in Africa: Competition for traditional development finance institutions?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 15-28.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:glopol:v:12:y:2021:i:s4:p:69-79. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.