The political economy of China's arms exports into Southeast Asia

Abstract

This dissertation examines a less-common aspect of conventional political economy the

trading and exporting of arms and its implications for regional and global relations.

Government investments in machines of destruction reshape the geopolitical stability

and foreign policies of exporters and importers, as well as regional neighbours and wary

rivals. Specifically, this dissertation surveys China's arms exports to Southeast Asia

from a political economy perspective which differs from conventional security analyses

on the same topic. Traditional scholarship on this issue has largely focused on the

revolution of military affairs in China, counter trade and defence offsets between China

and importing countries, and arms races between zealous regional rivals fuelled by

Chinese arms sales. However, this dissertation uses the sales of Chinese arms as a

case study to trace the political, economic and diplomatic impacts on Southeast Asia.

The rising dragon of the East has in the past two decades factored very importantly into

contemporary scholarship in every field imaginable. International relations studies on

the Chinese have straddled politics, economics, diplomacy and security, with increasing

linkages between each of these areas. Because Chinese arms sales to Southeast Asia

is multidimensional, it would be wrong to examine each area on its own without

considering the others because the result would be so narrow and incomplete that it

would provide the false notion of complete comprehension. This dissertation also

highlights the increasing interdependence of countries, which are caught in enmeshing

webs of the various aspects of diplomacy.