VU Research Portal De Chinese diplomatie en haar maatschappelijk denkbeeld Varrall, M.L. 2013 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Varrall, M. L. (2013). De Chinese diplomatie en haar maatschappelijk denkbeeld. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 23. Sep. 2021 Chinese Diplomacy and the Social Imaginary of Chineseness by Merriden VARRALL A THESIS SUBMITTED TO FREE UNIVERSITY AMSTERDAM FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE JUNE 2013 VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT De Chinese diplomatie en haar maatschappelijk denkbeeld ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, op gezag van de rector magnificus prof.dr. F.A. van der Duyn Schouten, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie van de Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen op maandag 18 november 2013 om 15.45 uur in de aula van de universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105 door Merriden Louise Varrall geboren te Timaru, Nieuw Zeeland ii promotor: prof.dr. P. Nyiri iii Table of Contents Table of Contents iv Abstract viii Statement of Candidate x Acknowledgments xi List of Images xiv Notes on the Text xiv Chapter One – Citizens of the Nation, then Students: An Introduction of Being Chinese at the China Foreign Affairs University 1 • Introducing Buddy 3 • The Chinese Foreign Affairs University 12 • The Chapters and Their Themes 16 • A Broader Context 19 Chapter Two – CFAU Students and National Logic: What, How and Why? 23 • The Myth of the China Threat: The dominant debates on China’s role in the world 24 • The View from Below: Studying up, political anthropology and the anthropology of the state 29 Political anthropology 31 - Classical understandings of the state 31 - Anthropological approaches to the state 34 • The Social Imaginary of Chineseness 41 • Chinese Nationalism 46 • How and Why a National Logic? 50 • Normalisation through Sedimentation 57 iv Education for sedimentation 60 • The Anthropology of the State: What can it add to dominant debates about China in international relations? 63 • Conclusion: We Chinese Students… a social imaginary built on the logic of the national 66 Chapter Three – Symbolic Immortality: One Long History of the Chinese Nation 69 • History and the Nation: Using the past to serve the present, using the present to shape the past 70 • Historical Beliefs: One true (apolitical) history 74 • Symbolic Immortality: Official narratives of Chinese history and CFAU students’ views 78 The first theme: A continuous and linear history – One true China and one true Chinese people 78 The second theme: The past in the present 85 - We know Confucianism is behind everything 86 The third theme: Chinese immortality disrupted – humiliation and victimhood at the hands of the West 93 The fourth theme: Regaining former and rightful world status 99 • Conclusion 102 Chapter Four – Students and the State 106 • The State – But not as we know it 106 • How the Chinese Party-state defines itself 112 Today: The three pillars 113 - Territorial integrity 114 - Economic growth 118 - Integrated identity 122 The Difference Between “We Chinese” and You, the Rest v of the World 128 • Mass Persuasion: How the Chinese state presents itself as a technique of governance 131 • Conclusion 137 Chapter Five – Ourselves and Outsiders: Who is Obliged to Whom, and Why? 144 • Social Relations and Obligations: The ever-changing ‘audience that matters’ 147 Modes of association and the role of the ego 151 Implications 153 • Time and Space and the National Logic 155 Space 156 - The student dormitory 156 Friendship in contexts of interdependence 158 - The classroom 161 Timetable 165 Peer Surveillance: class monitors 168 • (Failing to) Apply the Rules: Negotiating claims to authority 173 Meeting the Dean 174 Teacher-student relationships 179 • Conclusion: To whom are CFAU students obliged? 183 Chapter Six – CFAU Students’ Views of China’s Role in the World 188 • A New Model for the International System: The virtues of multipolarity 189 • Multilateralism 193 • The Future Shape of the International System 195 • China’s Role in an Ideal World 197 The right to a role 199 Responsibility 201 - Taking on responsibility one step at a time 203 China and the global environment 204 vi Global peace and security 207 • China’s Responsibility to Develop (Others) 211 Development with Chinese characteristics 212 What ‘developed’ means 218 • China’s Rise is No Threat 219 The ‘China threat theory’ 220 - Pursuing an independent policy of peace 228 - The Role of Soft Power 231 • Conclusion 234 Chapter Seven – Conclusion 238 References 248 Appendices 282 Appendix One: Ethics Approval Letter 282 vii Abstract With China's rise as a world power, understanding what the country's political elite thinks is no longer a matter that just concerns China or China scholars. This thesis contributes to knowledge of China's future political elite through long-term research among students at the China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU), whose graduates form a key talent pool for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These students’ attitudes, ideas, and convictions will, therefore, in the not too distant future, have a direct impact on the behaviour of China's foreign affairs establishment. This research pairs a Constructivist approach to International Relations Theory with Political Anthropology, particularly the Anthropology of the State, as a means of studying up processes of power and thus enriching the positivist approaches currently dominant in explaining and interpreting China's global activities. In circumstances where people are being intentionally trained as representatives of the state, understanding how they conceptualise what the state is and does is critical to understanding how that state will operate in the international arena. Based on interactions with CFAU students, this research explores the ‘social imaginary of Chineseness’ that permeates every aspect of students’ worldview. Through the subjects in the curriculum and the control of the practices of their everyday lives, the CFAU experience teaches students both what worldviews are appropriate for future foreign policy officials, and at the same time carefully precludes other ways of seeing the world. The thesis examines students’ views of history; obligation and social relations; power and governance in the nation-state; and China’s role in the world. The research concludes that prevalent views of China’s foreign policy, which uncritically accept the ‘reality’ of the state as a central actor, neglect the innumerable variations of what a ‘state’ can mean to the people who constitute it. While my students at CFAU did share many views in common with this understanding of international relations and diplomacy, their views diverged dramatically regarding why states would act in certain ways in the international system. My students were viii convinced that a unique ‘Chineseness’ fundamentally underpinned China’s international behaviour. The thesis reveals how this shared sense of Chineseness is created and maintained among China’s future elite and shows that the clear geo-political entities imagined by dominant approaches to international relations are not universal, but held together by convention and shared belief. ix Statement of candidate I certify that the work in this thesis is an original piece of research and it has been written by me. Any help and assistance that I have received in my research work and the preparation of the thesis itself have been appropriately acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the thesis. Merriden Varrall June 2013 x Acknowledgments While writing a thesis is ultimately a solitary endeavour, this dissertation would have never been possible without the support and assistance of a lot of other people to whom I owe a great deal of gratitude. I would firstly like to very warmly thank my supervisor, Pál Nyiri, Professor of Global History from an Anthropological Perspective at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Pal’s guidance, encouragement, suggestions, frank critiques, patience, dinner buying, and responses to my demands despite his own heavy workload and family commitments have been invaluable. I also want to thank Greg Downey, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, Macquarie University, Sydney, for his support and guidance. I have also benefited greatly from the advice of other academics who kindly gave their time and suggestions, including Graeme Smith, Elena Barabantseva, Florian Schneider, Deborah Brautigam, Kerry Brown, Sarah Raine, and friends and colleagues at Macquarie and the VU. Many institutions have also provided support during my candidature. The Macquarie University in Sydney and the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam provided me with funding and a base. I would like to thank Payel from MQ and Annet from VU for their tireless patience in answering all my questions and helping me resolve all my practical issues. The Australian Government Asia Endeavour Award enabled me to conduct invaluable fieldwork in Beijing. Thanks also to the Australia-Netherlands Research Council for their support for my time in Amsterdam. My gratitude also to all the people who allowed me to interview them, including a number of busy Chinese and international academics with whom over time I developed very warm relations.