Bulletin n. 3/2011
February 2012
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • S. V. Valentine
    Towards the Sino-American Trade Organization for the Prevention of Climate Change (STOP-CC)
    in Chinese Journal of International Politics (The) , Volume 4 Issue 4 Winter ,  2011 ,  447-474
    There is an adage in China ‘吳越同舟 (Wú Yuč tóng zhōu)’, which translates as ‘Wu and Yue in the same boat’. This purportedly refers to events during the Spring and Autumn Period (770–221 BC) of the Zhou Dynasty that forced two rival states, the Wu and the Yue, to cooperate in dealing with widespread flooding. The phrase characterizes situations in which adversaries must join forces to overcome a common challenge, and is possibly the etymological foundation of the English phrase ‘to be in the same boat’. Certain scholars contend that the axiom exemplifies the political relationship between the United States and China. Yan Xuetong has recently introduced in the Chinese Journal of International Politics the genesis of a fruitful discussion that has been carried forward by Alastair Iain Johnston in regard to explaining the Sino-American relationship. Essentially, Yan has put forth a theory of ‘superficial friendship’ wherein he argues that mutually unfavourable interests exceed mutually favourable interests in the Sino-American relationship. This, coupled with high expectations that both nations have in regard to support from one another, engenders the development of a ‘superficial friendship'. Yan further posits that superficial friendships are unstable relationships that propagate exaggerated highs and lows, which helps to explain why the Sino-American relationship tends to exhibit wild oscillations. Subsequently, Johnston provides a three-part critique of Yan's theory for understanding the oscillating nature of the Sino-American relationship. He starts by asserting that explaining this phenomenon is subject to epistemic bias, and introduces insights from psychological research that offer a compelling alternative explanation for this phenomenon. He further suggests that Yan's approach to coding may be open to interpretative challenge and that issues are ‘missing from the lists’, arguing that these two threats to internal validity potentially undermine Yan's classification of the relationship.
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