Learning about and from Normative Power China in International Education Cooperation

This chapter explains different forms of normative power and expands the conceptual understanding of the normative power approach to studying international higher education cooperation. ‘Normative Power’ is often understood as the ability to shape conceptions of the ‘normal’ in international relations (Manners, 2002), a concept underexplored in higher education research. Drawing on the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) education process, which has convened 51 Asian and European countries alongside the European Union (EU) and the Asian Secretariat since 2008, this paper investigates how the European partners promote the Bologna Process standards and norms to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). However, normative power is not exclusive to Europe; China’s Belt and Road Initiative’s (BRI) education program, initiated in 2013, has also exerted a distinct form of normative power and influence on ASEAN’s higher education systems.

By analyzing the ASEM education process and the BRI education program, this paper examines the constituents of normative power, its practice, the key differences between 'Normative Power Europe' and 'Normative Power China,' and the outcomes generated in EU-ASEAN and China-ASEAN collaborations. The author argues that the EU’s and China’s normative power in higher education cooperation is not defined solely by the norms they seek to diffuse but also by the underlying logic guiding their actions and the outcomes produced through processes of interactions. The paper also sheds light on lessons that can be learned about how China wields its normative power in comparison with the EU and how ASEAN engages with various powerful partners.