ABSTRACT
Economic growth and national security had been regarded as two separate logics rather than a single domain in China until the Asian financial crisis broke in 1997. Before the mid-1990s, economic reform and economic growth had been accorded high priority on the domestic policy agenda, while national security was primarily focused on ensuring territorial integrity and preventing subversion by hostile external forces. Partly because of the widening and deepening of globalization and China’s growing incorporation into the world economy since 1978, and partly as a result of the alarming outcomes of the Asian financial crisis that began in 1997, China’s policymakers and scholars began reviewing the economics– security nexus. Governing insecurities resulting from economic growth, both conceptually and as policy practice, have received increased attention since the mid-1990s. The Chinese government has since developed a number of policy instruments and institutional mechanisms to help policymakers address these emerging economic insecurities.
