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The Geopolitical Origins of Modern Chinese International Thought During the Republic of China (1912–1949)

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Contender States and Modern Chinese International Thought

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Abstract

This chapter examines the multilinear and geopolitical origins of modern Chinese international thought. It illustrates how its inception became possible due to three global and interconnected processes: the introduction of ideologies of modernity such as Socialism, Social Darwinism, and Liberalism through the migration of Chinese intellectuals to imperial Japan in the early twentieth century; the revolutionary events unfolding in Tzarist Russia from 1905 onwards, culminating in the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922; and China's traumatic confrontation with Western imperial powers. Furthermore, the chapter demonstrates how the Republican era witnessed the adoption of China's new structural position within modern geopolitics as a contender state, shaping the internal characteristics of modern Chinese international thought.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Tongmenghui was a secret society that was founded by Sun Yat-sen and Song Jiaoren in Tokyo in 1905. Their objective was to expel the Manchu Qing Dynasty- and establish a new Republic.

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  1. International Relations of East Asia, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Ferran Perez Mena

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Perez Mena, F. (2024). The Geopolitical Origins of Modern Chinese International Thought During the Republic of China (1912–1949). In: Contender States and Modern Chinese International Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-2151-1_3

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