Moving beyond sovereignty? a brief consideration of recent changes in China's approach to international order and the emergence of the tianxia concept

Journal of Contemporary China

Volumn 20, Issue 68, 2011, Pages 89-102

  Carlson, Allen ^a  

^a Cornell University ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FOREIGN POLICY; GEOPOLITICS; INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; REGIONAL SECURITY; SOVEREIGNTY;

CHINA;

EID: 78650055122     PISSN: 10670564     EISSN: 14699400     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2011.520848     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. For a more extensive discussion of sovereignty please also see Carlson, Unifying China, particularly chs 1 and 2.
2. On this point, special thanks go to Eryn MacDonald who recently finished an interesting Master's thesis at Cornell University's Government Department that touched upon this issue with reference to Beijing's approach to space weapons. See Eryn MacDonald, Socialization on Shaky Ground: China's Policy-Making on Space Weapons, unpublished MA thesis, Cornell University, 2009.
3. As in Carlson, 'More than just saying no', I use the term 'foreign policy elite' to refer to 'the group of scholars affiliated with a short list of prominent government sponsored research institutes, think tanks, and universities within China that are involved with analyzing China's foreign relations and broader issues of international politics. Such organizations include, but are not limited to, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics (Shijie Jingji yu Zhengzhi Yanjiusuo) and American Studies Institute (Meiguo Yanjiusuo), the Foreign Ministry's Institute of International Studies (Guoji Wenti Yanjiusuo), the State Council's Institute of Contemporary International Relations (Xiandai Guoji Guanxi Yanjiusuo), the Shanghai Institute of International Relations (Shanghai Guoji Wenti Yanjiusuo), Peking University's Institute of International Relations, Fudan University's Institute of American Studies, and the Foreign Affairs College'. For two excellent surveys of the role and influence of these institutions, see Bonnie Glaser and Phillip Saunders, 'Chinese civilian foreign policy research institutes: evolving roles and increasing influence', China Quarterly 171, (September 2002), pp. 597-616.
4. and David Shambaugh, 'China's international relations think tanks: evolving structure and process', China Quarterly 171, (Fall 2002), pp. 575-596.
5. More recently, see Xuanli Liao, Chinese Foreign Policy Think Tanks and China's Policy Toward Japan (The Chinese University Press, 2006).
6. and, for a survey beyond the field of foreign policy, see Zhu Xufeng, 'The influence of think tanks in the Chinese policy process', Asian Survey 49(2), (March/April 2009), pp. 333-357.
7. Wang Tieya, 'International law in China: historical and contemporary perspectives', Recuiel Des Cours no. 221, (1990), p. 228.
8. For more on such conventional approaches to sovereignty within China, please see Carlson, Unifying China. For my earliest work on this issue, see Allen Carlson, Constructing a New Great Wall: Chinese Foreign Policy and the Norm of State Sovereignty, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 2000.
9. Wang Yizhou, Dangdai Guoji Zhengzhi Xilun [An Analysis of Contemporary International Politics] (Shanghai: Shanghai People's Press, 1995), pp. 81-82.
10. This work is also cited in Carlson, 'More than just saying no', p. 226.
11. During interviews I conducted in Beijing at the time, a handful of influential scholars suggested that being weak on sovereignty was paramount to maiguo, literally 'selling out the nation', and more generally translated as 'traitorous'.
12. The observations made in this paragraph draw directly on points made in Carlson, Protecting Sovereignty.
13. and Carlson, Unifying China.
14. On this last point, see Carlson, Protecting Sovereignty.
15. Carlson, Unifying China.
16. and Carlson, 'More than just saying no'. For earlier, excellent analysis of this trend, see M. Taylor Fravel, 'China's attitude toward UN peacekeeping operations', Asian Survey, (November 1996), pp. 1102-1122.
17. Jin-Dong Yuan, 'Multilateral intervention and state sovereignty: Chinese views on UN peacekeeping operations', Political Science, (1998), pp. 275-295.
18. and Bates Gill and James Reilly, 'Sovereignty, intervention and peacekeeping: the view from Beijing', Survival, (Autumn 2000), pp. 41-59.
19. See for example, Zhu Mingquan, Beyond Westphalia and New Security Concepts, GIS Working Paper, no. 6, (2005), available at: www.IRChina.org.
20. Also see Zhang Haibin, 'Lun Guiji Huanjing Baohu Dui Guojia Zhuquan De Yinxiang' ['Impact of international environmental protection on national sovereignty'], Ouzhou Yanjiu [European Research] no. 3, (2007).
21. In addition, see Liu Kai and Chen Zhi, 'Quanqiuhua Shidai Zhiyue Guojia Zhuquan Rangdu De Kunnan He Wenti Fenxi' ['Analysis of the issues and difficulties in the restriction of national sovereignty in a global era'], Hubei Shehui Kexue [Hubei Social Sciences] no. 9, (2007).
22. Most recently see Yu Feng, 'Zhuquan De Xiangqi, Lishi Lixing, Hefaxing, Yu Rentong Jizhu' ['The origins of sovereignty: historical justice, legitimacy and identity base'], Shijie Jingji Yu Zhengzhi [World Economics and Politics] no. 4, (2008).
23. Wang Yizhou, 'Guoji Guanxi Yanjiu Ruogan Wenti' ['Several issues in the study of international relations'], Ouzhou Yanzhou [European Research] no. 3, (2006), p. 131.
24. Wang Yizhou, 'Guoji Guanxi Yanjiu Ruogan Wenti' ['Several issues in the study of international relations'], Ouzhou Yanzhou [European Research] no. 3, (2006), p. 131.
25. For a dissenting voice on this issue see Guan Liping, 'Rendao Zhuyi Ganyue' ['Humanitarian intervention'], Xueshu Tansuo [Academic Exploration] no. 1, (2005).
26. Song Zhe, 'Quanqiuhua Beijingxia Lianheguo Wehexingdong De Falu Jizhi Jianshe Shentao' ['A probe into the legal mechanisms in UN peacekeeping during globalization'], Nanjing Shuye Daxue Xuebao [Journal of Nanjing Forestry University] no. 4, (2006), pp. 61-62.
27. Fang Wenqin, 'Yufangxing waijiao' ['Flexible diplomacy'], Guoji Zhengzhi Yanjiu [International Politics Research] no. 3, (2007).
28. Zhang Ruizhuang, 'Jingti Xifang, Yi "Rendaozhuyi Ganyu" Wei Ming Dianfu Xianxing Guoji Zhixu' ['Be vigilant about the West subverting the existing international order in the name of "humanitarian intervention"'], Xiandai Guoji Guanxi [Contemporary International Relations] no. 9, (2008), pp. 12-13.
29. For similarly cautious analysis, see Chen Xiancai and Song Linlin, 'Guoji Rendaozhuyi Weiji Guanli' ['Crisis in the administration of international humanitarianism'], Guoji Luntan [International Forum] no. 3, (2008).
30. and Ji Nan, 'Cong Guojifa Kan Guoji Ganyu' ['Examining international intervention from the perspective of international law'], Fazhi Yu Shehui [Law and Society] no. 10, (2008).
31. Christian Reus-Smit, Moral Purpose of the State (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), p. 14.
32. Christian Reus-Smit, Moral Purpose of the State (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), p. 14.
33. See Samuel Kim, China, the United Nations, and World Order (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979).
34. See Alastair Iain Johnston, Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998).
35. and Alastair Iain Johnston, 'Cultural realism and strategy in Maoist China', in Peter Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), pp. 216-270.
36. See David Kang, China Rising: Peace, Power and Order in East Asia (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007).
37. For a direct critique along these lines, see William Callahan's extensive reviews of Zhao's work. For a synopsis of Callahan's thinking on these issues, see The Implications of Tianxia as a World System (USC-China Institute, 4 December 2008), available at: http://china.usc.edu/(A(2fC53LGOyQEkAAAAMjJlNjk0YWUtMDZkNC00MDc0LThjMzktYzJjYWE3OGVmYWI4MR9kFFSCX9LQWEidYgrna61zsiM1)S(jozakdrh5nuppx55fsrnmy45))/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=1280. Much of my own thinking about the emergence of the tianxia idea in Chinese international relations theory is inspired by Callahan's earlier work. However, whereas Callahan has tended, to date, to focus on Zhao, I treat Zhao as a secondary figure, and instead focus on how Chinese international relations scholars have begun to make use of tianxia ideas in their own writing.
38. Tingyang Zhao, 'Rethinking empire from a Chinese concept "all-under-heaven"', Social Identities, (January 2006).
39. Tingyang Zhao, 'A political world philosophy in terms of all-under-heaven (tian-xia)', Diogenes no. 1, (2009).
40. Tingyang Zhao, 'Empire and peace: the Chinese presentations consisting of a semantic introduction, a philosophical analysis, and an anthropological description: Part I, the concept of all-under-heaven: a semantic and historical introduction', Key Words Studies for Transcultura Encyclopedia of Le Robert 1, (2006).
41. However, it is also possible to argue that the attention Zhao devoted to tianxia, and the popular response to his writings, did stir interest within this community. In other words, it may have been a catalyst for more specialized writings on the concept on the part of international relations scholars.
42. Liang Shoude, at the time Peking University's senior international relations scholar, was at the center of this call. However, according to interviews conducted by the author during the 1990s, Liang's writings about Chinese international relations were not taken especially seriously by junior international relations specialists in China.
43. Qin translated Alexander Wendt's Social Theory of International Politics into Chinese. He has also written extensively in English and Chinese about constructivist approaches to international relations.
44. Qin Yaqing, 'Why is there no Chinese international relations theory?', International Relations of the Asia Pacific 7(3), (August 2007), pp. 313-340.
45. Yiwei Wang, 'Between science and art: questionable international relations theories', Japanese Journal of Political Science no. 2, (2007), p. 194. Italics in the original.
46. Yiwei Wang, 'Between science and art: questionable international relations theories', Japanese Journal of Political Science no. 2, (2007), p. 206.
47. Yiwei Wang, 'Between science and art: questionable international relations theories', Japanese Journal of Political Science no. 2, (2007), p. 207.
48. Yiwei Wang, 'Between science and art: questionable international relations theories', Japanese Journal of Political Science no. 2, (2007), p. 208.
49. Yan Xuetong, 'Xun Zi's thoughts on international politics and their implications', The Chinese Journal of International Politics no. 1, (2008), p. 159.
50. Yan Xuetong, 'Xun Zi's thoughts on international politics and their implications', The Chinese Journal of International Politics no. 1, (2008), p. 159.
51. Yan Xuetong, 'Xun Zi's thoughts on international politics and their implications', The Chinese Journal of International Politics no. 1, (2008), p. 163.
52. Kim, China, the United Nations, and World Order, p. 23.
53. Kim, China, the United Nations, and World Order, p. 23.