The Golden Era and after: UK policy towards China 1997-2020

本研究项目的重点是追溯1997年至2020年英国政府对华政策的起源和发展。在现有文献中，1997-2016年期间通常被理解为“黄金时代”，主要由中英之间的有利和积极关系组成。该项目将首先研究布莱尔政府最初制定的对华政策的政治和经济决定因素。这为分析2016-2020年期间英国对华政策的变化提供了背景。因此，研究的第二部分将重点关注导致英国政府与中国关系重新定位的关键事件，并试图评估英国议会中中国研究小组（CRG）等团体工作的意义。在欧洲研究小组成功推动英国脱欧之后，CRG于2020年成立，并在中国政策辩论中发挥着重要且日益重要的作用。研究中使用的概念框架借鉴了政治学中发展起来的去政治化理论，以理解过去二十年来国家政策的变化。本文将把传统的去政治化的“治国之道”观点（特别是在布莱尔、布朗和卡梅伦时期）与批判性国际关系理论中发展起来的话语去政治化的概念结合起来，尤其是在“反恐战争”的学术文献方面。这将是第一次对英国政治中诸如CRG等团体的意义进行深入的学术研究，也是第一次在国内和国际政治层面上使用话语去政治化理论的研究之一。该研究在三个领域做出了原创性贡献。首先，通过结合传统的和话语的去政治化，它为政治分析提供了一个新的概念框架。其次，该研究通过提出保守党和英国政治体制内的“倡导团体”（如CRG）的新理论，为理解政策制定过程做出了原创性贡献。最后，它提供了一个原始的方法框架来分析大流行的早期影响，显示它如何为外交政策的重新定位提供了催化剂，特别是英中关系。将采用定性方法，使用基于文献/文本分析和半结构化精英访谈的过程追踪技术来处理关键情节。在公共领域已经可以以政府出版物、回忆录、传记和有关商业协会的材料的形式获得重要的文件材料。在修订后的20年规则下，英国国家档案馆的文献资料将被查阅（例如，总理办公室：1997-2010年的信件和文件，PREM 49于2021年开放- 187文件）。研究的第二部分有大量的文献资料，如CRG档案，其中包括报告、每日和每周的评论、评论、网络研讨会和关于英中关系的大量资源。半结构化访谈将特别针对卡梅伦执政时期和后卡梅伦时期进行。

This research project focuses on tracing the origins and the development of UK government policy towards China from 1997 to 2020. In the existing literature the period 1997-2016 is generally understood as the `Golden Era' consisting in large part of favourable and positive relations between the UK and China. The project will firstly research the political and economic determinants of policy towards China developed initially by the Blair administration. This provides the context for analysing the change in UK policy towards China in the period 2016-2020. The second part of the study will therefore focus on the key episodes which have led to a reorientation of UK government relations with China and seek to assess the significance of the work of groups such as the China Research Group (CRG) within the UK parliament. CRG was formed in 2020 following the success of the European Research Group in promoting Brexit and plays a major, and increasingly important, role in policy debate on China. The conceptual framework used in the study draws on theories of depoliticisation developed in political science to understand changes in state policy in the last twenty years. The thesis will combine traditional `statecraft' views of depoliticization (relevant particularly under Blair, Brown and Cameron) with notions of discursive depoliticization developed in critical international relations theory, mostly notably in respect of academic literature on the `War on Terror'. This will be the first in-depth academic study of the significance of groups such as the CRG in British politics and one of the first studies to use theories of discursive depoliticization at the level of domestic and international politics. The research offers an original contribution in three areas. First, by combining traditional and discursive depoliticisation it offers a novel conceptual framework for political analysis. Second, the research offers an original contribution to understanding the policymaking process by offering a new theorization of `advocacy groups' such as CRG within the Conservative party and UK political system. Finally, it offers an original methodological framework for analysing the early impact of the pandemic showing how it provided a catalyst for the reorientation of foreign policy, specifically UK-China relations. . A qualitative methodology will be employed using process tracing techniques for key episodes grounded in documentary/textual analysis and semi-structured elite interviewing. Significant documentary material is already available in the public domain in the form of government publications, memoirs, biographies and material from relevant business associations. Documentary material from the UK National Archives will be consulted as it becomes available under the revised 20-year rule (for example, Prime Minister's Office: Correspondence and Papers, 1997-2010, PREM 49 became accessible in 2021 - 187 files). Extensive documentary material is available for the second part of the research for example the CRG archive which includes reports, daily and weekly reviews, commentaries, webinars, and extensive resources on UK-China relations. Semi-structured interviews will be carried out in particular to cover the Cameron and post-Cameron period.