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A Non-world: Chinese Perceptions of the Western International Order

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Contestations of Liberal Order

Abstract

As the West struggles, China, economically and politically stable, has increased its criticism toward the Western-led international order. According to Chinese arguments, the ongoing decade has demonstrated that the Western liberal international order is no more capable of solving the troubles of the globalizing world. It is as if the Western political imagination has run out of steam and it is now the responsibility of China to take the lead in stabilizing the world. On the side of the official statements, Chinese theorists of world politics are envisioning a new alternative world order, which would be based on a historical, sinocentric system that was in place in East Asia for thousands of years. According to Chinese theorists, this ‘tianxia system’ was based on completely different philosophical and institutional foundations, and it is a mere historical contingency that it was later left in the shadow of the Western international order. This ‘tianxia theory’ is one of the main proponents for a new ‘Chinese theory of world politics’. It is slowly influencing policy circles in China, and more importantly, globally challenging our ingrained conceptions on world politics. A large part of the work of the tianxia theorists consists of criticisms of the ‘west’: its religion, political thought, and ‘chaotic’ individualist nature. The chapter especially focuses on these critical narratives of the ‘west’.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, for example: Renmin ribao 7.2.2017. For an academic perspective, see Cheng and Wang (2015).

  2. 2.

    Shi-Kupfer et al. (2017).

  3. 3.

    Yan (2018).

  4. 4.

    See, for example, Schneider (2014), 683–703.

  5. 5.

    Zhang (2013).

  6. 6.

    On this process of reform and opening up, see a detailed description in Chaps 4–6 in MacFarquhar (2012).

  7. 7.

    Ibid.

  8. 8.

    For an excellent introduction to Maoism and its historical development, see the essays in Cheek (2010).

  9. 9.

    Kallio (2015), 87–114.

  10. 10.

    Cook (2010), 288–312.

  11. 11.

    Guo Yingjie has proposed that there exists alongside the official party-state sponsored nationalism, a cultural nationalism which is more attached to Chinese culture or Chinese nation than to the current government. See Guo (2004).

  12. 12.

    Brady (2012), 57–76.

  13. 13.

    Niquet (2012), 76–90.

  14. 14.

    See Xinhua (2017).

  15. 15.

    See Kallio (2011).

  16. 16.

    Nielsen and Kristensen (2014), 97–118.

  17. 17.

    Qin (2016).

  18. 18.

    Zhao (2011), 1–7.

  19. 19.

    On Qinghua school, see Yan (2011). On relational theory, see Qin (2018).

  20. 20.

    Noessellt (2015).

  21. 21.

    Ren (2014).

  22. 22.

    See Kang (2010). For a more critical assessment, see Perdue (2015), 1002–1014.

  23. 23.

    Fairbank (1968). See also Ban (2017).

  24. 24.

    Ibid.

  25. 25.

    Schwartz (1968), 276–288.

  26. 26.

    For a rich and detailed description of these events, see Spence (1999).

  27. 27.

    See Zheng (2011), 293–321.

  28. 28.

    Various Chinese terms for the tianxia theory are used, such as ‘tianxiaism’ (天下主义, tianxiazhuyi), ‘tianxia theory’ (天下论, tianxia lun) sometimes ‘new tianxiaism’ (新天下主义, xin tianxiazhuyi), and ‘tianxia order’ (天下秩序, tianxia zhixu).

  29. 29.

    Schneider (2014), 689.

  30. 30.

    See Mokry (2018) and Kallio (2018).

  31. 31.

    Zhao (2011), 34–40.

  32. 32.

    Ren (2014).

  33. 33.

    Zhao (2011), 38.

  34. 34.

    Ren (2014).

  35. 35.

    Ge (2016).

  36. 36.

    Callahan (2008), 749–761. Dreyer (2015), 1015–1031.

  37. 37.

    Xu and Liu (2015).

  38. 38.

    Li (2016), 1–10.

  39. 39.

    Jouhki and Pennanen (2016), 1–10.

  40. 40.

    See Buruma and Margalit (2004); Jackson (2006).

  41. 41.

    The change in Chinese perceptions of the West during this transformative period is well presented in Ch’en (1979), 59–91.

  42. 42.

    Wang (2013), 103–124.

  43. 43.

    Lu and Zhao (2009), 52–66.

  44. 44.

    See Chen (1995).

  45. 45.

    See Katzenstein (2010).

  46. 46.

    Jun and Smith (2018), 294–314.

  47. 47.

    Sheng (1996).

  48. 48.

    See Skinner (2002).

  49. 49.

    Cox (1986), 207.

  50. 50.

    Shi-Kupfer et al. (2017).

  51. 51.

    Zhang (2012), 125–129.

  52. 52.

    Sheng, Hong is currently working at the Tianze Institute of Economics in Beijing. Tianze Institute is one of the rare independent think tanks in China.

  53. 53.

    Sheng (1996).

  54. 54.

    Ibid.

  55. 55.

    Ibid.

  56. 56.

    Ibid.

  57. 57.

    Zhao (2011), 11–13.

  58. 58.

    , Zhao (2010).

  59. 59.

    Ibid.

  60. 60.

    Ibid.

  61. 61.

    Zhao (2011), 11–17.

  62. 62.

    Shang (2009).

  63. 63.

    Ibid.

  64. 64.

    Ibid.

  65. 65.

    Ren (2014).

  66. 66.

    Kowtow (guibai, 跪拜 or ketou 磕头) was a ceremonial bow for expressing deference in face of the emperor, in which one needed to kneel down and touch the ground with his head for several times.

  67. 67.

    Ren (2014).

  68. 68.

    Ibid.

  69. 69.

    Zhao gives some credit to Marxisism, however. For him, it is the only Western philosophy which has a truly worldly outlook. He does not study it any further though.

  70. 70.

    Zhao (2011), 11–17.

  71. 71.

    Ibid.

  72. 72.

    Zhao (2011), 11–17. Sheng (1996).

  73. 73.

    Zhao (2009), 6–17.

  74. 74.

    Zhao (2011), 33.

  75. 75.

    Ren (2014).

  76. 76.

    , Zhao (2016), 21.

  77. 77.

    Ibid.

  78. 78.

    Keith (2012), 235–252.

  79. 79.

    Kallio (2018).

  80. 80.

    CCTV (2017). See also Puranen (2019).

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  1. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Matti Puranen

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  1. Tampere Peace Research Institute, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

    Marko Lehti

  2. Turku Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Henna-Riikka Pennanen

  3. Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Jukka Jouhki

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Puranen, M. (2020). A Non-world: Chinese Perceptions of the Western International Order. In: Lehti, M., Pennanen, HR., Jouhki, J. (eds) Contestations of Liberal Order. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22059-4_12

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