China Stands Up

China Stands Up In 1949, Mao Zedong made the historic proclamation that ‘the Chinese people have stood up’. This statement was significant, undoubtedly reflect- ing the changing nature not only of China’s self-perception, but also of its relationship with the rest of the world. In terms of reducing the imperialist presence of the West and Japan within China, and reasserting China’s territorial integrity and legal sovereignty to the outside world, Mao and China can indeed be seen to have successfully ‘stood up’. However, the develop- ment of China’s position in the hitherto Western-dominated international system has been more ambiguous. In China Stands Up David Scott examines the PRC’s presence in the international system, from 1949 to the present, and also looks forward to the future, asking: • How do we define the rise of China? • How does China see its role in the world? • What shapes China’s role? • How do international actors view China’s role in the international community? • Has China risen in any real sense? Engaging with a rich tapestry of sources and imagery, ranging from govern- mental, media, academic and popular settings, and bridging the divide between history and international relations, this book will appeal to students and scholars of both these fields, as well as those interested in Chinese politics and foreign policy. David Scott is Lecturer of International Politics at Brunel University, UK. China Stands Up The PRC and the international system David Scott First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library,2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2007 David Scott All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Scott, David, 1952– China stands up : the PRC and the international system / David Scott. p. cm. 1. China—Foreign relations—1949– I. Title. II. Title: PRC and the international system. DS777.8.S3 2007 327.51—dc22 2006038771 ISBN 0-203-94746-0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0-415-40269-7 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-415-40270-0 (pbk) ISBN10: 0-203-94746-0 (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-40269-9 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-40270-5 (pbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-94746-3 (ebk) Contents Acknowledgements ix Transliteration and word order x Prologue: time, space and memories re-written 1 1 Images in international affairs and their legacy for China 4 Cultural-ideational (image-related) factors in international affairs 4 ‘The Middle Kingdom’ 7 ‘The Century of Humiliation’ 11 ‘The Yellow Peril’ 15 2 China ‘leans to one side’ in the Cold War 20 Chinese perceptions of the Chinese Revolution and of the international system 20 Western perceptions of the Chinese Revolution 23 Sino–Soviet Alliance and McCarthyism 24 The Korean War 26 The growing challenge of China 31 3 China against the world 41 China’s general image 41 China’s nuclear drive 46 Third World revolution in Vietnam and beyond 51 China as a rogue state or revolutionary paradise 58 Sino–Soviet divergence 62 Overview 67 vi RunningContents Heading 4 China re-joins the Cold War . against the Soviet Union 69 Sino–American convergence 69 Deng Xiaoping 76 Cold War II 79 Shifts in the system (the Soviet collapse and Tiananmen) 81 5 A reviving Middle Kingdom for China 83 China’s international presence 83 China’s perspectives on the international system 85 Chinese nationalism 92 6 A reviving Middle Kingdom for China’s neighbours 99 China–Russia relations in the 1990s 99 China–Southeast Asia and Australasia relations in the 1990s 103 China–India relations in the 1990s 106 China–Japan relations in the 1990s 108 7 Up against the hegemon, the USA 112 Structural importance of the China–US relationship 115 ‘China Threat’ literature and images in the USA 116 Chinese perceptions of America’s ‘China Threat’ imagery 120 US responses to the PRC 123 8 China and the world in the twenty-first century 129 Towards a ‘China’s Century’? 129 China’s presence in the twenty-first century 130 Chinese perspectives on the twenty-first century 136 Uncertainties, long cycles and Grand Strategy for a new century 141 9 The international system and China in the twenty-first century 146 Sino–Russian relations for the twenty-first century 146 Sino–Japanese relations for the twenty-first century 150 Sino–Indian relations for the twenty-first century 153 Sino–American relations for the twenty-first century 158 ChapterContents title vii Epilogue 167 Back to the future: 1949 revisited 167 Bibliography 169 Index 210 Acknowledgements The first and most important acknowledgement goes to my wife Clare. A trained archivist, history postgraduate, and above all partner in life; her love, support and encouragement over the years made this possible. My thanks also to the anonymous reviewer of the original manuscript whose warmth and helpful suggestions moved this forward at an important time. From a distance, various figures have attracted me with their sweep of events allied to their sensitivity to nuances and feelings. Previously, as a student, I was taken with the breadth of academic and humanistic vision of Martin Wight and Jaroslav Krejci. Currently, as a researcher and reader, I am engaged from afar with the style of writing and ideas of Arnold Toynbee, Paul Kennedy, Akira Iriye and Jonathan Spence. Transliteration and word order In the text and bibliography, Romanization of Chinese (Mandarin) terms generally follow the current Pinyin system, rather than the older Wades- Giles system. Thus, Mao Zedong appears rather than Mao Tse-tung, etc. Two exceptions are the more familiar older rendering of Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat-sen rather than their less familiar Pinyin rendering of Jiang Jieshí and Sun Yixian. Traditional Chinese and PRC usage of family name followed by the personal name is generally applied, exemplified with politi- cians like Deng Xiaoping and scholars like Deng Yong. However when Western personal names are present, Western name order is used. Conse- quently, Richard Hu appears as Richard Hu, whereas Hu Jintao appears as Hu Jintao, etc. Book titles remain as published, as do quotations. Prologue Time, space and memories re-written On 21 September 1949, Mao Zedong made one of the iconic speeches of the twentieth century. That day, he stood before the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and made his famous declaration zhongguo renmin zhancilai le ‘the Chinese People have stood up’, prefixed by the equally revealing assertion ‘our nation will never again be an insulted nation’. The ‘standing up’ metaphor entered into the lexicon of China’s Inter- national Relations and political jargon. In 1965, China’s Chief of Staff, Luo Ruiqing, used the metaphor to judge that ‘in founding the great People’s Republic of China, the long suffering Chinese people stood up like a giant . the triumph of the Chinese revolution drastically changed the world balance of forces’ (1965: 31). Deng Xiaoping used this metaphor to conclude his formal resignation letter in September 1989 that ‘since the Chinese people were able to stand up, they will surely be able to stand firm forever among the nations of the world’ (1984–94: 3.313). Elsewhere that month, it was a transformation of the Chinese people that ‘they felt inferior for more than a century, but now, under the leadership of the Communist party, they have stood up’ (3.317). Indeed, such was its resonance that subsequently Mao’s ‘standing up’ speech became associated not with the September Conference meeting but with the formal proclamation of the People’s Republic of China, the PRC, made by Mao at Tiananmen Square on 1 October 1949. Mao’s speech was iconic in the way in which China’s past, present and future experiences were welded into a collective national panorama. In retrospect, it indicates key drives that have shaped PRC foreign policy since 1949. Mao’s standing up was in part an ‘internal’ issue, that is, having stood up to imperialist presence of the West and of Japan in China, Mao was now reasserting China’s territorial integrity and legal sovereignty to the outside world. In this sense, Mao and China had indeed successfully stood up. Mao’s standing up was also in part an ‘external’ issue, one that was not finished in 1949. It was of course relatively simple enough, from its position of domestic power, for a PRC-led China to stand up and end the Western presence ‘within’ China during the PRC’s immediate consolidation of power 1948–50 (Hooper 1986). What was far more complicated was to end that 2 China Stands Up dominatory Western presence ‘outside’ China, in the international system at large. Here, 1949 was the start of a process that is still going on vis-à-vis China and the world. For Zhang Yongjin, the establishment of the PRC in 1949 was ‘one of the most significant events in twentieth century world politics’ which ‘helped reshape the political and strategic balance in the post-war international system, and has since exercized profound and lasting influence in the evolution of international relations in the second half of the twentieth century’ (1998: 17).

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