Taming Neighbors: Exploring China's Economic Statecraft to Change Neighboring Countries' Policies and Their Effects

Since 2010 China, with its increasing economic power and influence, has adopted significantly aggressive policies toward its neighboring countries that adopt policies that could infringe upon China's national interests. This study aims primarily to answer the following question: What have been the impacts on itself of China's use of economic retaliation? In other words, what effects have China's economic sanctions had on its overall ability to influence other countries? After examining three remarkable cases of China's imposition of economic pressures on its neighbors since 2010—Japan in 2010 and 2012 and South Korea since 2016—the author finds that China's use of economic coercion can have significantly negative impacts on China itself and can also be very costly in political and strategic terms.