Asian Review of Political Economy最新文献

South Korea’s unrealized proposals in the 1960s remind us that the tension between bilateral dominance and fragile regionalism remains one of the central dilemmas of Asia’s order today. Yet scholarship has largely overlooked South Korea’s Cold War multilateral initiatives. This article investigates Seoul’s efforts to reshape regional economic and security arrangements amid escalating Cold War tensions, focusing on proposals for the Asian Common Market, the Asian and Pacific Council, and the Asia–Pacific Treaty Organization. Using archival documents, presidential speeches, and declassified U.S. records, and interpreted through a constructivist and a historical context lens, the analysis shows how South Korea sought to reframe its identity from a peripheral Cold War state to a regional leader by advocating economic integration and multilateral security. These proposals encountered significant resistance, especially from the United States and Japan, underscoring the limits of middle-power diplomacy in Cold War Asia. The article demonstrates that these unrealized initiatives not only highlight the constraints of U.S.-led bilateralism but also illuminate enduring tensions that continue to shape Asia’s regional order in the Indo-Pacific today.

South Africa joined BRICS with the aim of benefiting from enhanced trade with the grouping, which encompasses four of the largest economies in the world. This article undertook an empirical review to determine an answer to the following research question (RQ): whether South Africa’s exports to the original four BRIC/BRICs member countries had grown and diversified following its membership over the first fourteen-year timeframe (2010–2024)? Across these, decline was identified in the findings, demonstrating that South Africa’s participation in the group has performed below its potential and stated rationale. The article notes a growing trade deficit and lack of industrialised imports from South Africa, especially when compared with the EU and the US. This is shown to be mainly due to South Africa’s asymmetrical openness towards the BRICs, including having the single-lowest tariff rates towards the other four members at 4.9 to 5.3%, while the next lowest BRICs’ general tariff is at 10.3%. Against these findings, the article makes the case for a BRICS Plus treaty in order to eliminate any tariff and non-tariff barriers, as well as formulate realistic expectations and obligations for internal cohesion and external engagement based on credible commitment.

This paper explores the lack of coordination on drug clinical trials in the Greater Bay Area, encompassing Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. Despite growing regional cooperation in the field of biomedicine and biopharmaceuticals, coordinated drug clinical trial governance across the three jurisdictions remains largely disjointed, with separate approval systems, ethics review processes, and deeper obstacles such as compliance burdens and talent-related issues. Drawing lessons from the European Union’s experience, the paper argues that harmonization and simplification of regulatory standards can enhance coordination efficiency and effectiveness. It recommends an approach in which the three regions develop a mutually agreeable framework while aligning with top-level design and strategic priorities set by Mainland, as well as international standards. This coordinated model could pave the way for the Greater Bay Area to become a leading hub for internationally recognized high-quality clinical research.

In the era of “AI plus healthcare”, personal health data has shifted from static records into dynamic and time-sequential data flow covering a full lifecycle. While it has become an important element of production in healthcare industry, it also faces new risks and challenges and the current legal framework of personal health data protection in China cannot satisfactorily address these challenges. The ambiguous rules on personal health data ownership and the ineffective individual empowerment model of data governance fail to respond to the dual needs for protection of personal health data and extraction of data value. In view of diversified and sometimes conflicting values and interests embodied in personal health data, it is therefore recommended that the agile governance model, characterized by dynamic adaptability and multistakeholders collaboration, be adopted. The bundle of rights over data should be allocated among data subjects, data processors and the government; a differentiated consent mechanism based on risk classification should be constructed; the principle of purpose limitation and minimum necessary should be reinterpreted in an expansive and generalized manner within the limits of reasonable expectation and risk control; and, anonymization measures and tort liability rules should be improved by clarifying obligations of stakeholders and balancing their rights and responsibilities. Through dynamic risk control by collaboration of multiple stakeholders, the agile governance model can reach the balance between sufficient protection and rational utilization of personal health data in data processing.

This research examines Africa’s evolving role in the Global South’s development trajectory, focusing on its multifaceted cooperation with China as a transformative force in the global development architecture. The study is driven by the need to understand how Africa, once marginalized in global governance, is asserting agency through strategic partnerships (particularly with China) across infrastructure, trade, industrialization, health, education, and diplomacy. The objectives are to analyze the historical roots, current dynamics, and developmental impacts of Africa–China relations while assessing the extent to which these engagements align with Africa’s own priorities, as articulated in Agenda 2063 and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Key findings reveal that, despite persistent concerns around debt sustainability, environmental governance, labor practices, and political influence, Africa has increasingly leveraged Chinese cooperation to close infrastructure gaps, promote industrialization, and diversify global alliances. Importantly, African states and institutions have demonstrated growing negotiation power and strategic vision, positioning themselves not as passive recipients but as co-creators of alternative development pathways. The study recommends strengthening institutional capacity, ensuring transparency and local ownership in partnerships, and fostering continental coordination. If guided by African priorities, Africa–China cooperation can help redefine South–South relations and support a multipolar, inclusive global development order.

The rapid advancement of gene editing technologies, particularly the widespread application of CRISPR in clinical and scientific research, has made effective regulation of these technologies a pressing global concern. This study conducts a comprehensive review of the current legal framework and regulatory environment governing human gene editing in China. It reveals critical shortcomings in the existing system, including fragmented oversight, an unclear allocation of legal responsibilities, insufficient capacity within ethical review committees, and inadequate mechanisms for ongoing and post-procedural supervision. To remedy this, this article advocates for the creation of a unified “Human Genome Editing Act” by incorporating global regulatory standards and taking into account China’s unique situation, as well as defining clear legal obligations, strengthening ethics committees’ expertise, and setting up a comprehensive regulatory framework. By constructing a scientific, systematic, and practical regulatory framework, China can safeguard academic freedom and effectively prevent technological abuse, thereby promoting the responsible development of human gene editing technologies.

The study investigates the role of international organizations (IOs) in the relationships between diplomatic engagement, operational constraints, peacebuilding initiatives, and human rights advocacy in Pakistan. The study employs mixed-methods research, integrating quantitative survey data (n = 475) with qualitative insights from in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, including organizations, academia, and civil society. The results show that institutional performance and geopolitical needs significantly outweigh demographic determinants, such as gender, in determining the understanding of IO effectiveness. Diplomatic interventions enhanced institutional legitimacy and government trust; however, long-standing bureaucratic inefficiencies and administrative bottlenecks limited the operational reach and programming goals of IOs. The game-changing potential of IOs that incorporate human rights and peacebuilding initiatives lies in improving local trust in institutions and fostering sociopolitical development over time. The study contributes to organizational transformation in a politically adaptive society by emphasizing context-sensitive engagement strategies, participatory governance, and locally rooted partnerships. Diplomats, development practitioners, and state actors seeking to legitimize, cohere, and enhance foreign operations in politically transitional and governance-challenged contexts such as Pakistan.

This study revisits the foundations of welfare regime divergence by integrating welfare regime typology, subjective class perceptions, and the Varieties of Capitalism framework. It argues that decommodification remains the key dimension distinguishing contemporary welfare states and that citizens’ subjective class perceptions interact with institutional structures to shape support for decommodifying policies. Using data from 22 advanced OECD economies, the analysis proceeds in two stages. First, a macro-level clustering based on principal component analysis identifies two welfare regime groups distinguished primarily by their level of decommodification. Second, an individual-level analysis using World Values Survey data shows that higher subjective class perception is associated with stronger support for income equality, public ownership, and government responsibility, with this relationship significantly stronger in more decommodified economies. These findings suggest that welfare state evolution is shaped not only by institutional configurations but also by how individuals perceive their social position and their trust in the state’s capacity to mitigate market risks. This study contributes to a more integrated understanding of welfare regime divergence by linking macro-structural variation with micro-level attitudinal dynamics.

This paper provides empirical evidence of the Noodle Bowl syndrome, a widely recognized phenomenon in East Asia in which multiple free trade agreements (FTAs) coexist in an uncoordinated manner and may offset one another’s benefits. It does so by examining how different factors, including Japan’s own agreements, affect both the implementation of bilateral FTAs and the extent to which these agreements are actually utilized. The results show that Japan is more likely to implement bilateral FTAs with partners that maintain broader liberal trade networks and have access to the Chinese market, and that greater use of the ASEAN–Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership (AJCEP) further increases this likelihood, reflecting competitive and contagious dynamics in trade policymaking. The analysis also demonstrates that those bilateral FTAs are less likely to be utilized when the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is more actively used, providing empirical confirmation of the Noodle Bowl effect.

China’s special access policies for unapproved drugs and medical devices represent a key institutional innovation in its healthcare regulatory system. In recent years, tailored versions of this policy have been implemented in Hainan Lecheng, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), and Beijing Tianzhu, each exhibiting differentiated trajectories in institutional design and management mechanisms. This study identifies a pattern of policy evolution termed Strategy-Embedded Diffusion, a model wherein the central government does not mandate a uniform policy model, but strategically deploys this tool to different strategic regions in alignment with national objectives. To analyze this phenomenon, this study develops a three-tiered interactive framework encompassing central delegation, local innovation, and social feedback. A comparative case analysis reveals that: the central government delineates distinct scopes of authorization based on each region’s strategic positioning and risk tolerances; local governments engage in selective learning and institutional reproduction tailored to local conditions; and key societal stakeholders actively shape policy refinement through continuous feedback.