Monday Online Presentation Session 2

Chinese Studies

Session Chair: Yun Xiong

13:30-13:55

68213 | Rethinking “China Threat” or “Peaceful Rise of China” in China’s Foreign Policy Towards Myanmar

Yasmine Yang, The University of Auckland, New Zealand

As China rises, Sino–US competition for influence in East and Southeast Asia has become inevitable. China threat theories allege that the growing Chinese presence in this region poses multidimensional risks. One example is China’s expanding presence over Myanmar, its neighbour to the west. Politically and economically, Myanmar is much more affected by China’s rise compared to other countries in the Asia–Pacific. The majority of the literature on China’s inroads into Myanmar that is currently accessible focuses on China’s geopolitical and strategic goals rather than domestic determinants of Chinese foreign policy. Meanwhile, a relatively small body of literature concerns Myanmar’s demand for Chinese influence over its internal situation. Therefore, this article explores China’s operations in Myanmar to “supply–side” reasons relating to Chinese intentions, but it also reinforces these arguments by examining the “demand–side” factors within Myanmar’s internal development. Drawing a general overview of Chinese foreign aid, economic investment, and peace process that relates directly to a rising and substantial Chinese presence in Myanmar, it argues that the China threat theory may have been persistently overstated and that a relatively benign rise is much possible. This article contributes to an analysis of combining existing geostrategic and alternative explanations, which can help to create a more comprehensive understanding of Chinese engagement in developing countries.

13:55-14:20

70616 | Making Laborers Disposable: Dismissals and Compromises in the Staff Outsourcing System

Yun Xiong, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology/ Peking University, Germany

How the outsourcing companies make more knowledgeable workers give up resistance when unjust dismissals happen in IT staff outsourcing? Utilizing the methods of participant observation and interviews, a case study of the listed Chinese outsourcing company Ruii is examined, which is among the top three human resource service companies in China and has recently undergone a strategic business transformation from outsourcing basic positions to IT staffing. The study reveals that outsourcing companies must conform to clients' demands for flexibility in a fiercely competitive market with an unbalanced supply and demand. As a result, more workers are being returned, which often results in dismissals that must comply with stringent dismissal restrictions under labor law. To mitigate the compensation amount and risks associated with dismissals and overcome resistance and reluctance to flexibility among outsourced laborers, the outsourcing company endeavors to make laborers ‘compromise.’: (1) compromising before resistance, laborers compromise for the sake of maintaining friendly relationships with staff deliverers before resistance; (2) compromising when losing weapons, outsourcing companies show acquiescence to some workers' falsified records during recruitment while utilizing them when discharging; and (3) compromising for living, workers tend to defend their rights while also being fearful of prolonged legal battles, leading them to compromise for survival. Therefore, outsourcing companies have developed a process strategy for managing redundancies to mitigate the amount of compensation and risks linked with dismissals.

14:20-14:45

69060 | Treaty Rights or Commercial Laws? Chinese Trademark Legislation and Foreign Trademark Protection in the Late Qing and Early Republican China Qing Chen, University of Warwick, United Kingdom

The modern Chinese trademark laws were constructed through the interactions of various Chinese and foreign state and non-state actors. On the one hand, they were largely adapted from the Japanese or British system and the foreign advisors and the Powers’ agents participated actively throughout legislation whereby the legal transplantation took place. On the other hand, the legislation caused disputes over twenty years not only between Chinese and foreigners, but also between the interested Powers, and between foreign merchants and their agents in China. From the perspective of the foreign mercantile communities in China, this paper investigates trademark legislation and foreign trademark protection in the late Qing and early Republican China. It aims to reveal the complexities and conflicts caused by legal pluralism within the extraterritorial system in the society of nations. The promulgation of the Law of 1923 came about as a result of the Post-war Washington Conference context and the Chinese Government realized the centralization of administration on trademark matters. The recognition of the first Chinese Trademark Law by the Powers in 1926 implied foreigners’ surrender of extraterritorial rights in dealing with all trademark disputes in China while it was not until 1943 that the extraterritoriality was abolished in China. It argued that the principle involved in Chinese trademark legislation savored more of treaty rights than of commercial law. The Chinese trademark legislation, and by extension, modern legal reform, was intertwined with foreign intervention as well as the domestic struggle against the extraterritorial system since the early twentieth century.