Enze Han's "Asymmetrical Neighbors"

Enze Han is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong. His research interests include ethnic politics in China, China's relations with Southeast Asia, and the politics of state formation in the borderland area between China, Myanmar, and Thailand. He is the author of Contestation and Adaptation: The Politics of National Identity in China.

Han applied the “Page 99 Test” to his new book, Asymmetrical Neighbors: Borderland State Building between China and Southeast Asia, and reported the following:

On page 99 of the book, it talks about the situation of Thailand’s economic development in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, and the situation of economic development in northern Thailand. It also touches upon how the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai has become a magnet for both legal and illegal migrant labor from the neighboring country of Myanmar.

Unfortunately, this test does not really work for my book. Although page 99 of Asymmetrical Neighbors does touch upon how Myanmar migrant labor go to work in Thailand, and that is one aspect of my book on how disparities in economic conditions across national borders have led to this mass movement of people, this is nonetheless not the main focus of the book. So I would give it a C as a test to understand what my book is about from reading on page 99.

Asymmetrical Neighbors looks at the state and nation building process in the borderland area between the three countries of China, Myanmar and Thailand. By documenting the historical development of these variations and their contemporary manifestations, the book emphasizes how asymmetrical power relations across national borders have deep consequences for how politics along the border are structured and the diverse outcome in state consolidation and national identity construction. The book argues that the failure of the Myanmar state to consolidate its control over its borderland area is partly due to the political and military meddling by its two more powerful neighbors during the Cold War. Furthermore, both China and Thailand, being more economically advanced than Myanmar, have exerted heavy economic influence on the borderland area at the cost of Myanmar’s economic sovereignty. These two dimensions explain the variation of state building across the borderland among these three countries. Furthermore, the book has pointed out the substantial influence the People’s Republic of China in the political dynamic of the borderland. With its growing power asymmetry over its southern neighbors, its influence is bound to increase, along with possible resistance against its influence. So this book should be interest for people who wants to understand some historical backgrounds of China’s relations with Southeast Asia, Myanmar’s ethnic politics, and the future of borderland politics between China, Myanmar, and Thailand.

Learn more about Asymmetrical Neighbors at the Oxford University Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue