"Logic Of Choice: China’s Binding Strategies Toward North Korea, 1965–1970" - By Upcoming CWP Fellow Chengzhi Yin
In the late 1960s, the Soviet Union tried to induce North Korea to drift away from China. This challenged China’s security, given escalated tension between China and the Soviet Union in this period. To counter the Soviet policies, China used binding strategies, which are a state’s attempt to maintain or enhance its alignment with its security partners. I argue that China chose coercive binding as its primary strategy because it had strong leverage over North Korea. Meanwhile, China deployed accommodative binding to complement its primary strategy. In this article, I first develop a theoretical framework to explain how a state chooses its binding strategies. I then apply this theory to the Chinese-North Korean-Soviet triangle in the late 1960s. I conclude by discussing broader theoretical and policy implications, such as the importance of examining how states mix different types of binding strategies.
Published online: 11 Jul 2022 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09636412.2022.2097891 - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09636412.2022.2097891?journalCode=fsst20
Chengzhi Yin is an upcoming CWP fellow. Previsouly he was a PhD candidate in the Political Science Department at Boston College. His research interests include international security, grand strategy, and Chinese foreign policy.
His dissertation title was: “Logic of Choice: China’s Alliance Balancing Strategies”
Abstract: China uses alliance balancing strategies to divide adversarial alliances and bind its own. The dissertation explores the way China chooses its strategies, including coercion, accommodation, and a mixture of both. Using archives from China, the United States, and Russia, the dissertation conducts five case studies and identifies leverage and threat perception to determine China’s choice of these strategies.
Photo Credit: Av Roman Harak - North Korea - China friendship, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31637624
