Domestic Legalization of International Cooperation: The Case of China

• In Event: East Asia and the Global Political Economy

Abstract

A large strand of literature in international relations studies domestic response to globalization, but the discussions are largely limited to trade issues within democratic contexts. This article examines China’s legalization of international cooperation at the national and subnational levels. We build a comprehensive dataset of state regulations at the national level and collect an original sample of official working and regulatory documents at the provincial and city levels from 2000 to 2020. This dataset covers important non-trade issues including oversea investment, export of labor services, and foreign aid. Using both unsupervised and supervised machine learning methods, we identify the respective topical distribution among state regulations and local government documents and draw comparison between the two sources. We find that despite relatively balanced coverage of regulatory matters at the national level (including emphasis on environmental protection and sustainability), local governments’ agenda is disproportionately influenced by Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative. This divergence in policy responses reveals the fragmented regulating process in China: while professional technocrats at the center strive to meet new challenges in international cooperation, local elites are strongly motivated to signal their loyalty to the central leadership.

Authors

• Yuan Wang

• Jiahua Yue