Responsible great power or crafty speculator? Analysing China's role performance in ASEAN's governance of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This dissertation examines China’s role as a ‘responsible great power’ in Southeast Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on how this role was enacted through vaccine diplomacy and how it was recognised by ASEAN member states. Drawing on the English School theory of International Relations and social role theory, this dissertation conceptualises international roles as intersubjectively constructed in both ego role and alter role. It argues that legitimacy in international society stems not only from material capabilities, but also from the recognition of a state’s role by its audience. This dissertation conducts empirical analysis on China’s pandemic-related engagement with three ASEAN member states – Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam – as ideal types along a continuum of recognition: full, partial, and non-recognition. The empirical evidence shows that while Cambodia fully embraced China’s assistance and rhetoric, Indonesia responded pragmatically with mixed signals, and Vietnam rejected China’s role both symbolically and substantively. This dissertation thus reveals that China’s role was more widely accepted in areas of non-traditional security issues. It can be concluded that ASEAN’s recognition of China’s role is shaped by context-specific factors, including historical relations, domestic political dynamics, and normative expectations of regional order. This dissertation contributes to the existing scholarship by adding to the English School approach to role theory and offering new insights into ASEAN-China relations. It underscores that great power role is not merely claimed or imposed but must be continuously enacted and recognised through deliberate practices in a given international social environment.