Abstract
This chapter will explore the contested ways in which China is reimagined with regards to International Relations theory. By exploring China’s historic and contemporary positioning within the international system, this chapter aims to show how recognition of state’s different engagements and experiences will result in more flexible and liberated frames for understanding International Relations, while simultaneously recognising the limitations which accompany it. The chapter will be structured around three key perspectives. The first presents China as an alternative space of historical imagination in relation to Western experiences. The second perspective explores China’s contemporary experiences since the 1949 revolution and how they can be seen to challenge normative assumptions of sovereignty and the balancing of power. Finally, this chapter will explore how China’s profound historical traditions and modern legacies should be explored as both theories and methods for transcending the problem of Eurocentrism.
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Notes
- 1.
Kenneth Waltz has calibrated in his 1959 book (reprinted in 2001) Man, the State and War that there are three levels of analysis for international politics. The first image is the level of human nature. The second image refers to regime types (democracy vs. dictatorship) and the third image is the systemic image, namely the structure of international system.
- 2.
The Chinese scholar Liu Xiaofeng emphasises the pursue of gentlemanship via self-perfection in the Confucian tradition, which may well justify political upheavals of all kinds if the ruler failed to honour the ‘Mandate of Heaven’. See Liu Xiaofeng’s essay of ‘Examining the Genesis of Revolutionary Spirit in Confucianism’ in Confucianism and Nation State, 2007 (Chinese edition).
- 3.
It is rather ironic that Xi Jinping, leader of the Chinese Communist Party promised to robustly defend globalisation and free trade in Davos. See ‘Xi Jinping Delivers Robust Defence of Globalization at Davos’ in Financial Times (https://www.ft.com/content/67ec2ec0-dca2-11e6-9d7c-be108f1c1dce, last access 2020-6-6).
- 4.
Historians have largely agreed that the 1911 Revolution that created the Republic of China was not effectively the creation of a democratic republic. It was instead the collapse of the old regime with socio-political order delving into a chaotic abyss.
- 5.
The May Fourth Movement was a student protest that took place on 4th May 1919, when China as a winning side of the First World War was forced to lease the Shandong Peninsula to Japan after the German exit as the Versailles Treaty had required. It rippled into a broader cultural movement to systematically reflect upon China’s own intellectual tradition. For a full account of the movement, see Vera Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightment, 1986, and Rana Mitter, Bitter Revolution, 2004.
- 6.
For example, the CCP’s senior leader Liu Shaoqi published an article on ‘How to be a Good Communist’ (1939) that emphasised heavily on a Communist’s effort to self-cultivate through learning and practising, and actively applying readings of Marx and Lenin to revolutionary practice. Liu’s perception of a good communist is very similar to the Confucian perception of a gentleman.
- 7.
This is largely the English School’s definition of anarchy, while the English School relies heavily on historical description for understanding potential order under anarchy. See Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society, 1977/2012.
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Suggested Further Reading
Cohen, P. A. (2010). Discovering history in China: American historical writing on the recent Chinese past. Columbia University Press.
Duara, P. (1991). Culture, power, and the state: Rural North China, 1900–1942. Stanford University Press.
Hevia, J. L. (1995). Cherishing men from Afar: Qing guest ritual and the Macartney embassy of 1793. Duke University Press.
Fairbank, J. K., & Goldman, M. (2006). China: A new history. Harvard University Press.
Meisner, M. (1999). Mao’s China and after: A history of the People’s Republic. Simon and Schuster.
Mitter, R. (2009) Modern China. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
Shambaugh, D., & Yahuda, M. (Eds.). (2014). International relations of Asia. Rowman & Littlefield.
Spence, J. D. (1990). The search for modern China. WW Norton & Company.
Waley-Cohen, J. (2000). The sextants of Beijing: Global currents in Chinese history. WW Norton & Company.
Zhao, T. (2005). Tian-xia system: A philosophical introduction to world institutions. Jiangsu Education Press (赵汀阳. 天下体系: 世界制度哲学导论. 江蘇教育出版社, 2005).
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Debate: Do you think Mao Zedong’s legacies have been positive or negative for contemporary China?
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Imagine that you were a diplomat from your native/residential country, write a letter to the Chinese leader to tell him what role you would expect China to play in current world affairs.
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Liu, X. (2022). Reimagining the Global Order: China in History and Theory. In: Cooke, S. (eds) Non-Western Global Theories of International Relations. Palgrave Studies in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84938-2_4
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