Bringing the Ports and Port Diplomacy Back-In 1
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Bringing the Ports and Port Diplomacy Back-in 1 Bringing the Ports and Port Diplomacy Back-in: A Comparative Study of the Role of Hong Kong, Macao and Shanghai in Contemporary EU-China Relations A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Politics and International Relations Author: Mr. Chan, Wai Shun © Lancaster University, the United Kingdom June, 2020 Bringing the Ports and Port Diplomacy Back-in 2 Abstract Abstract of the thesis entitled: BRINGING THE PORTS AND PORT DIPLOMACY BACK-IN: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ROLE OF HONG KONG, MACAO AND SHANGHAI IN CONTEMPORARY EU-CHINA RELATIONS Submitted by CHAN, Wai Shun For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Politics at Lancaster University in June 2020 This thesis aims to bring back the prism of port-cities and port diplomacy to understanding the contemporary relationship between the EU and China. By drawing various concepts from international politics, port studies and political geography, the thesis highlights the crucial role played by port-cities as a vector of economic and political power, via their role as an interface between the “port host”, in the thesis China, and port visitors, in the thesis the European Union. The suggested framework will then be applied to analyse the contemporary EU-China relations through three selected case studies: Hong Kong, where the first European colony was established in 1842; Macao, where the first European settlement was established in 1557; and Shanghai, where the first batch of treaty ports opened by the Europeans without turning Shanghai as a colony of one nation. At the end of the thesis, the thesis will discuss a new academic concept, namely the civilian sea power, and how the academic concept is applicable to contemporary diplomatic studies and international politics. Keywords: Civilian Ports, Structural Power, Geopolitics, EU-China relations, Structural Port Diplomacy Bringing the Ports and Port Diplomacy Back-in 3 Acknowledgement “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” – Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities While the above quote was commonly shared in my hometown, Hong Kong, I originally did not have much feeling about it – until I realised my thesis was caught between two defining moments of my hometown: I started my quest to PhD study at Lancaster in January 2015, a few months after the peaceful end of the Umbrella Movement; I submitted my thesis in December 2019, when a few weeks ago my neighbourhood was “tear-gassed” and my working university was turned into a battlefield between the Police Force and the protesters. No one, not just myself but the local community and the international world, could foresee such drastic change of the political environment of my hometown. Doing a thesis which was partly associated with the changing environment was always a difficult task for me. On the one hand, the changing environment may generate useful quantitative data or interesting qualitative observations, which every researcher might be tempted to include in his/her thesis. On the other hand, as a political being (as Aristotle suggested) as well as a young academic working in tertiary institution, it was equally unrealistic to bypass all political emotions but simply focusing on my thesis writing – especially when you knew some of your friends and fellow students were arrested or injured. Therefore, I was in debt with my thesis supervisor, Dr. Basil Germond, who was extremely patient to my slow progress throughout these 5 years. His valuable academic guidance had broadened my horizons, which allowed me to borrow his expertise in maritime diplomacy to analyse contemporary Sino-European relations. His helpful attitude provided me with strong mental support, especially I was kind of lost when realising my portable device with research data was damaged and could never be recovered. Without his academic advice, extreme patience and mental encouragement, this thesis could never be completed. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude towards the members of my thesis panel, Dr. Chris May and Dr. Ramon Pacheco Pardo, and those members in my confirmation panel, Dr. Neil Manson and Dr. Thomas Mills. Their comments and advice were crucial to improve the whole thesis and valuable to my preparation for the further academic journey. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the PG coordinators of the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Clare and Sheila, who were also supportive to me and helped me to work with the administrative procedures from Day 1 till the end of the submission. Over these five years of Ph.D. research, I received invaluable support from my workplace and friends. I was especially indebted to Prof. Paul Lee and Prof. Chi-yue Chiu, the two Dean of Social Science in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who gave me permission to take a study leave to Lancaster so as to initiate my study, and offered me with teaching opportunities once I returned from the United Kingdom. Although in-person he always found studying a PhD degree might not be the best thing to do nowadays, I was always in debt to Dr. Simon Shen, the ex-programme director of Global Studies Programme and the Master of Global Political Economy, who had shown his encouragement and support to me in the workplace or as a respected academic. I also encountered lots of wonderful colleagues such as Mr. Damian Cheung, Dr. Yannie Cheung, Mr. Steve Chung, Prof. Anthony Fung, Mr. Kalvin Fung, Dr. Toru Horiuchi, Ms. Rebecca Wong, Dr. Kaho Yu, Dr. Raymond Yuen, etc., who helped me a lot in workplace and supported me more than colleagues. As a younger son of Sandy, a Macao-born Chinese and raised in Hong Kong, and Bobby, who was born and raised in Hong Kong, my family root was a motivation of this thesis and their support, from financial and mental, was a crucial key for me to complete my Ph.D. study. I Bringing the Ports and Port Diplomacy Back-in 4 would also like to thank my elder brother, Benny, and his family to take care of Sandy when I was away from home to study. The warm family environment I had surely was an indispensable part of my life. I was also indebted to the mental support from my life-long brothers from the Queen’s College and my life-long friends Sherry and Alice. Finally, I wish to take this tiny little corner to express my love for Iris, the lady who always motivated and inspired me to be a better person. You were, are, and will always be in my heart even though we know our paths may never cross in the future. This thesis is dedicated to the place I always call home, Hong Kong. May God bless the Pearl of Orient in the best, or maybe the worst, of times. Wilson Chan June 2020 Bringing the Ports and Port Diplomacy Back-in 5 List of Acronyms AAGC Asia-Africa Growth Corridor ANT Actor-Network Theory ASEM Asia-Europe Meeting BDN Blue Dot Network BRI Belt and Road Initiative CCP Chinese Community Party CEE Central and Eastern European Countries CFSP Common Foreign and Security Policy CHINCOM Chinese Committee COCOM Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls CPLP Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries CSCT Colombo South Container Terminal CSI Container Security Initiative EAR Ethnic Autonomous Region EC European Communities ECSC European Coal and Steel Community EEAS European External Action Service EEC European Economic Community EIC East Indian Company ESDP European Security and Defence Policy EUBIP European Union Business Information Programme FMCOPRC Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region FTZ Free Trade Zone GWC Dutch West India Companies HKBL Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region of the People’s Republic of China HKSAR Hong Kong Special Administrative Region KMT Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) MBL The Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China MSAR Macao Special Administrative Region MSR 21st Century Ma5eterr Silk Road OCTS One Country, Two Systems PCA Partnership and Cooperation Agreement PESCO Permanent Structured Cooperation PLA People’s Liberation Army PLA-N People’s Liberational Army – Navy PRC People’s Republic of China QCA Qualitative Comparative Analysis SEZ Special Economic Zone SMC Shanghai Municipal Council SOCFCOM Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce SREB Silk Road Economic Belt TCA Trade and Cooperation Agreement VOC United East Indian Company Bringing the Ports and Port Diplomacy Back-in 6 List of Tables and Figures List of Tables 1.1 The institutional evolution of EU-China relation since 1949 1.2 Definition of centrality and intermediacy under the IPE and FPA (proposed by the thesis) 1.3 A summary of cases to be studied with two independent variables concerned 1.4 Summary of the variations of two configurations of the selected cases 3.1 The EU division of labour in external trade relations 3.2 The EU division of labour developmental aid, human rights and legal cooperation 3.3 The EU division of labour in security cooperation 3.4 The EU division of labour in global representation 3.5 The relationship matrix between the role of civilian ports & centrality-intermediacy analysis 4.1 The port geography of Macao in 1557 4.2 The port geography of Macao in early 17th century 4.3 The port geography of Macao in mid-17th century 4.4 The port geography of Macao in 1757 4.5 The port geography of Macao after 1842 4.6 The port geography of Macao