The patterns of Chinese authoritarian patronage and implications for foreign policy: Lessons from Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Cambodia
| Published date | 01 December 2020 |
| Author | Patrick Hein |
| DOI | 10.1177/2057891119878517 |
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Research articles |
Research article
The patterns of Chinese
authoritarian patronage
and implications for
foreign policy: Lessons
from Sri Lanka,
Myanmar and Cambodia
Patrick Hein
Ochanomizu University, Japan
Abstract
This study compares Chinese autocracy promotion in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Cambodia from the
perspective of mass atrocities. Theory posits that foreign powers influence the thinking and
behaviour of domestic elites through external incentives. It is the purpose of the article to identify
the incentives that link Chinese foreign policy to repressive outcomes as they unintentionally and
indirectly reinforce domestic ethno-nationalist narratives and therefore the likelihood and risk of
mass atrocities. What are the implications? The so-called “black knight” is not as powerful as some
scholars wish to portray: China has become hostage to its own incentives and this will ultimately
threaten to undermine its foreign policy goals as the reorientation of foreign policy in Sri Lanka,
opposition against Chinese projects in Myanmar and public discontent of the Cambodian oppo-
sition with China have demonstrated.
Keywords
autocracy promotion, China, mass atrocities, South Asia
Introduction
Some scholars have argued that violence and conflict in Asia have been decreasing compared to
the rest of the world. Bellamy (2017: 1), for example, states that “[a]t the height of the Cold War,
East Asia accounted for around 80 per cent of the world’s mass atrocities. By the second decade of
Corresponding author:
Patrick Hein, Ochanomizu University, 2-1-1, Otsuka,Bunkyo-ku Tokyo, Japan.
Email: hein.patrick@ocha.ac.jp
Asian Journal of Comparative Politics
2020, Vol. 5(4) 385–399
ªThe Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/2057891119878517
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