“Neighbouring China” is concerned with the question what China’s rise means for its immediate neighbours. The PRC’s rapid economic growth and its policies of opening up, fostering trade, and maintaining stability affect the dreams and futures of those living along its borders.
As pathways of raw materials, people, and goods in and out of China, the borderlands are targets of ambitious development schemes, “special zones”, pipelines, road- and railway-projects. At the same time, they are sites of ethnic tension and legal uncertainty. The borderlands are both the hotspots of conflict and the joints that hinge Asia as a region together.
“Neighbouring China” was initiated in 2010 by Martin Saxer. It is, at once, the focus of Martin’s own work, a book project, a research agenda, and an effort to establish a network of people with different regional and thematic expertise.
This website is still in its initial stages. It started in July 2011 as a simple blog to organise, tag, and comment information on current developments along the border. This blog is continued as Border Review, and will hopefully be expanded with the help of others. Please visit the Network section to learn about possible ways to contribute.
A first important step was the academic workshop “The Art of Neighbouring” which Martin and Zhang Juan organised at the Asia Research Institute in Singapore in March 2012.