ПІДХІД КИТАЮ ДО СТРАТЕГІЙ ХЕДЖУВАННЯ СЕРЕДНІХ СИЛ В АЗІАТСЬКО-ТИХООКЕАНСЬКОМУ РЕГІОНІ

Abstract

As the importance of Asia-Pacific regional developments grows daily in the paradigm of US-China rivalry, the strategies employed by regional states to combat the possible negative impacts of great power competition vary considerably, depending on the coherence of multiple factors. Nevertheless, the growing trend amongst middle powers to reduce the probability of diminishing returns is the adoption of a hedging strategy. As regional leaders and decision-makers, middle powers face particular challenges to adjust their foreign policy strategy, while maintaining priorities, balancing economic and security considerations and enhancing their leverage. Moreover, as “middle power” is growing to be a new defining category in state classification, and this research paper attempts to answer the question of how China addresses the challenge of middle power hedging and what methods Beijing employs to ensure a continuous support or a status quo preservation amidst the geopolitical instability in the Asia-Pacific and cooperation efforts of the regional middle powers and the US. The paper argues that the normative categories for China’s cooperation approach with the hedging middle powers can be conceptualized into a framework with two critical categories: effort management and the primary driver of the strategy. As such, opportunism-driven strategy applied by China to cooperate with South Korea and Thailand, official US allies, is distinct from the one applied to Vietnam and Indonesia, namely pragmatism-driven strategy. Simultaneously, the effort optimization approach to engage South Korea and Vietnam, which face was sovereignty challenges, will differ significantly from the effort conformity strategy applied to Thailand and Indonesia, which share common interest and values for the regional development with China.