With strings attached: China's economic policy in the South China Sea

Abstract

How has China used economic policy to create leverage in its relationships with its Asian neighbors? Through comparative case studies of China's political and economic relationship with the Philippines and its political and economic relationship with Cambodia, this thesis supports the notion that China uses cooperative economic policy to entice political support from its poorer, lesser developed neighbors while using coercive economic policy to extract political concessions from its more advanced, emerging neighbors. In short, China uses coercive economic policy to extract concessions from Manila while it uses cooperative economic policy to woo Cambodian support in those very disputes.