Abstract
This chapter discusses the problems and prospects of the development of international studies in China.2 In discussing the state of European studies in China in 1995, Zhou Hong made an interesting observation which is applicable to the study of IR in China. Zhou asked: ‘Does China need to have European studies which are independent of the government? Should European studies in China promote academic interest or should it be used as a tool to gather interests and benefits? What is the value of an academic study of Europe to China?’3 Questions of this kind appear superfluous, even ludicrous, to Western readers because the answers are obvious. The fact that they are being raised in China shows the peculiar situation there — one that is related to what can be referred to as a structural problem. And a structural problem is but one among many problems that China is facing, although arguably it is the most intractable.
Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth.
(Deng Xiaoping, 1978)1
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
For some background reading, see Gerald Chan, ‘International studies in China: origins and development’, Issues & Studies, Vol. 33, No. 2 (February 1997), pp. 40–64.
Zhou Hong, ‘Zhongguo de shehui zhuyi jianshe yu Zhongguo de Ouzhou yanjiu wenti [China’s socialist construction and problems of China’s European studies]’, Europe, No. 2 (1995), p. 85.
David Shambaugh, ‘The Soviet influence on China’s worldview’, The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 27 (January 1992), pp. 152 and 158.
Zhang Nianfang et al. (eds), Zhongguo jiaoyu baike quanshu [Encyclopaedia of Education in China] (Beijing: Haiyang chubanshe, 1991).
The ‘guide’ (my terminology) book is: Social Science Section, State Education Commission (commissioned), Shijie zhengzhi jingji yu guoji guanxi [World Politics, Economics, and International Relations] 2nd edn (Beijing: Jingji kexue chubanshe, 1994). The editor of this book is Professor Feng Tejun, a senior academic in the Department of International Politics at the People’s University of China. Feng’s own edited textbooks, Dangdai shijie zhengzhi jingji yu guoji guanxi [Contemporary World Politics, Economics, and International Relations] 1st and 2nd edns (Beijing: Renmin University of China Press, 1988 and 1994) are replicas of his own ‘guide’ book, which supersedes a previous one commissioned by the Ideological and Political Work Section of the State Education Commission, entitled ‘Shijie zhengzhi jingjixue yu guoji guanxi’ jiaoxue yaodian (shiyong ben) [Key Points in Teaching ‘World Politics, Economics, and International Relations’ (trial edn)] (Beijing: Higher Education Press, 1989).
Zhang, Encyclopaedia of Education in China, pp. 503–4. The traditional way of appointing university presidents is currently undergoing a slight change, which allows a small amount of freedom in the selection process. See Gerald Chan, ‘Democracy provides renewed hope for Chinese academe’, Campus Review, Sydney, 27 July 1995, p. 8.
Zhang, Encyclopaedia of Education in China, p. 504.
In general, the Party secretary of a university is to play a ‘leadership role’ while the university president is to assume overall management responsibility, but the actual situation varies from one institution to another and depends on the personal relationship between Party secretaries and university presidents and heads of various units. I wish to thank Dr Zhang Dongdong for various discussions on this issue in Wellington in April 1997 and Xu Yamin, Professor of Economics, Peking University, for an illuminating conversation held in Macau on 2 May 1997 on the intricacies of university structure in China.
He, ‘Establish China’s international relations theory’, p. 37.
See, for example, Yosef Lapid and Friedrich Kratochwil (eds), The return of Culture and Identity in IR Theory (Boulder; London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996).
John W. Burton, World Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972). However, Burton’s book entitled Global Conflict: the Domestic Sources of International Crisis (Brighton, Sussex: Wheatsheaf Books, 1984) was translated by Ma Xueyin and published by Zhongguo Renmin Gongan Daxue chubanshe, Beijing, in 1991.
See Denis Goulet, The Cruel Choice: a New Concept in the Theory of Development (New York: Atheneum, 1971).
See Terence K. Hopkins, Immanuel Wallerstein et al., The Age of Transition: Trajectory of the World-system 1945–2025 (London and New Jersey: Zed Books, 1996).
Wang Yizhou, Lizudian yu fangfalu [Basis and methodology]’, Ouzhou, No. 3 (1995), pp. 87–9.
Ji Guoxing, ‘Promoting economic reform and modernisation in China’, in David Myers (ed.), Re-inventing the Humanities: International Perspectives (Kew, Victoria: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 1995), p. 64.
These included strategic developments in Sino-American relations, changes in America—Japan—European Community economic relations after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sino-Russian and Sino-Ukraine relations, studies in contemporary capitalism, regionalisation and globalisation of the economy, and development models in the Asia-Pacific region. Ibid., p. 66.
Harry Harding, ‘An evaluation of the Committee on International Relations Studies with the People’s Republic of China and of international studies in China’, mimeograph, 8 January 1992. The Program is based at George Washington University, Washington, DC.
Both governments helped to fund the construction of a building which will house the School of International Studies, established in 1996 at Peking University.
Chu Jianrong, ‘Guoji guanxi yanjiu fangfa youdai chuangxin [The method of international relations studies needs a breakthrough]’, Shijie jingji daobao [World Economic Herald], Shanghai, 6 October 1986, p. 4.
Not unlike the system adopted by most national libraries around the world, in which open access is denied. In the Peking University library, only professors, visiting scholars, and graduate students have open access to certain collections.
People’s Daily, 19 February 1995, p. 15.
Chen Qiaozhi, Huang Zisheng, and Chen Senhai (eds), China’s Southeast Asian Research: the Status Quo [sic] and Prospect (Guangzhou: Jinan University Press, 1992).
Chinese academics seldom use the term ‘social scientists’, but they use the term ‘social sciences’. Instead, they often use the term ‘Marxist scientists or scholars’ to refer to those working in the social sciences.
He Baogang uses the term ‘semi-civil society’ to describe China’s democratisation process. See his The Democratic Implications of Civil Society in China (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press; New York: St Martin’s Press, 1997).
The membership number was put to me in an interview with its president, Professor Lu Yi, at the Foreign Affairs College on 9 March 1995.
Some of them are revisiting the writings of Marx and Lenin with a view to developing a theory of IR based on Marxism. Feng Tejun admitted that, as far as he knew, only Chinese scholars were trying to do this. Interview with him at the People’s University of China, 16 February 1995. See also note 18 of Chapter 4.
Wang Jisi (ed.), Civilisations and International Politics, p. 185.
Wang Yizhou, Dangdai guoji guanxi yanjiu de ruogan wenti [Some problems in the study of contemporary international relations]’, Europe, No. 5 (1993), pp. 6–13. See also his book, Dangdai guoji zhengzhi xilun [An Analysis of Contemporary International Politics] (Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Press; and Taiwan: Wunan tushu chuban youxian gongsi, 1995).
Bai, Introduction to Contemporary International Relations, pp. 290–3.
Ibid., p. 292. Bai stated this earlier than Feng Shaolei. See Feng Shaolei et al., Guoji guanxi xinlun [New Discussions on International Relations] (Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, 1994).
Bai, Introduction to Contemporary International Relations, p. 292.
Gerald Chan, ‘Towards an international relations theory with Chinese characteristics’, a paper presented at the International Studies Association and the Japan Association of International Relations joint convention held in Makuhari, Japan, 20–22 September 1996.
Chu Feng, ‘Ershiyi shiji de Zhongguo yu shijie [China and the world in the twenty-first century]’, Studies of International Politics, No. 1 (1995), p. 55.
Wang Lian, ‘A summary of an academic conference on “The development of a theory of international relations with Chinese characteristics”’, p. 47.
For some interesting and up-to-date information about this school, see the homepage of World-Systems Network at< http://csf.colorado.edu/wsystems/index.html>.
The most analytical piece of work on world order, world pattern, or world structure published in China in recent years is Du Gong and Ni Liyu et al. (eds), Zhuanhuanzhong de shijie geju [The Changing World Pattern] (Beijing: World Affairs Press, 1992).
One Chinese scholar is, however, optimistic that the theory of dependence will thrive for a long time in the studies in the Third World. See Cheng Tongshun, ‘Yifulun de lilun goucheng bijiao youshi he weilai [Components of the theory of dependence: comparative superiority and future]’, World Economics and Politics, No. 8 (1997), pp. 18–21.
Johan Galtung, ‘A structural theory of imperialism’, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1971), pp. 81–118.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1999 Gerald Chan
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chan, G. (1999). Problems and Prospects. In: Chinese Perspectives on International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230390201_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230390201_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-40795-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-39020-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)