ABSTRACT
As China aims to transition from Aviation Big to Aviation Power, a better understanding of its ever-evolving air transport policy direction, policy goal setting, and policymaking process is very essential and relevant. A wealth of literature exists on China’s air transport industry; majority of studies approach the subject matter from an economic perspective with a special focus on industry competition, business strategies, and market performance. Policy changes are treated as a consequence of industry restructuring, which is reactive to the market forces. While the incumbent scholarship certainly sheds light on China’s air transport sector, this study takes a different approach: treating policymaking and policy changes as the external stimuli that have driven the changes China’s air transport industry has experienced in the past four decades.
By adopting a longitudinal approach and applying the Micro-Macro Linkage Framework to five country-pair case studies, using primary data collected from dozens of interviewees who have hands-on experience in aviation policymaking and bilateral negotiations, and secondary data from files and records from various sources, the study aims to identify the driving forces that have shaped China’s ever-evolving international air transport policy direction and goal setting. It explores how the identified factors have interacted with each other and affected the country’s international air transport policy direction. It further investigates how China’s policy goal has been achieved and executed through bilateral air services negotiations on a country-pair basis. The study examines the time-associated factors and circumstances surrounding the various rounds of bilateral negotiations between China and its selective counterparts, in attempts to establish the driving forces, their interaction, and their impact on the considerations of China’s policymakers when determining the country liberalisation policy goals. It further analyses how and to what extent the identified factors have affected China’s negotiation strategies and outcome. It argues that China’s international air transport policy direction is in alignment with the country’s overall strategic mission and its goal is to support the country’s endeavour to realise the “China dream.” The study concludes that driving forces at international, regional, domestic, and institutional levels have an impact on the country’s policy direction and goal setting, although these factors are constrained by time and circumstances. While corporate political activities have an increasing effect on the policymaking process, the policymaking institution has survived the various rounds of structural reforms and is well positioned to retain its authority to ensure consistency and efficacy in policymaking.
