China's Search for "Peaceful Internationalism" Vis-À-Vis a Liberal World Order: Interests, National Identity and Foreign Policy
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 10-2014 China's Search For "Peaceful Internationalism" Vis-À-Vis A Liberal World Order: Interests, National Identity And Foreign Policy Bo Ma Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/365 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] CHINA’S SEARCH FOR “PEACEFUL INTERNATIONALISM” VIS-À-VIS A LIBERAL WORLD ORDER: INTERESTS, NATIONAL IDENTITY AND FOREIGN POLICY By BO MA A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2014 i © 2014 Bo Ma All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Yan Sun 8/6/2014 Date Chair of Examining Committee Alyson Cole 8/6/2014 Date Executive Officer Yan Sun Thomas Weiss Peter Liberman Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT CHINA’S SEARCH FOR “PEACEFUL INTERNATIONALISM” VIS-À-VIS A LIBERAL WORLD ORDER: INTERESTS, NATIONAL IDENTITY AND FOREIGN POLICY by Bo Ma Adviser: Professor Yan Sun In this dissertation, I employ the concept of national identity to explain China’s foreign policy behavior during the history of the People’s Republic of China. Specifically, I propose the concept of “peaceful internationalism” to characterize the behavioral orientation of China in the post-Mao era. Peaceful internationalism as both an idea and a policy, aims at a cross-national framework for cooperation and co-existence through non-conflictual, non-hegemonic and non- unilateral mechanisms of dispute resolution. This study argues that China pursues peaceful internationalism in a liberal international order, which is consistent with its contemporary national identity, which I term the “phoenix rising” identity. This identity has three roots: the Confucian identity, the victimhood identity and the identity of revolutionary internationalism. As an analytical category, the “phoenix rising” identity captures China’s contemporary national identity, highlighting the rebirth and renewal of China’s past identities in addition to China’s experience of integrating into the world community during the post-Mao era. It shares the values of non-intervention, non-hegemony and equality among powers and serves as a framework for understanding China’s foreign policy behavior in contemporary times. In the dissertation, according to the ideas and policies embedded in China’s peaceful internationalism, China’s resurgence will undermine certain special rights and privileges the U.S. enjoys. But essentially, peaceful internationalism and American-led liberal internationalism iv share many fundamental principles, such as the market economy, inter-state cooperation and international institutions. In order to maintain world peace and stability, the system must guarantee the survival and coexistence of states, strong or weak, in a system of sovereign states. My work provides little evidence that a rising China exploits its own unequal power over subordinate states through alliance systems or imperial systems, or that it will move to balance against the United States in the twentieth-first century. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have always wanted to write a doctoral dissertation that I truly wanted, and I am sure in spite of its immatureness and flaws, this is the one. This is a work on how China behaved, behaves and will behave in international politics, and I believe it; I certainly hope that I am right because it is not just about China, but also the world order. I cannot recall when I start this project, and certainly it is not the end either. Despite my own dedications: perhaps more than 1001 days and nights’ research, reading, writing, and revising, I want to express my upmost thanks to Professor Yan Sun, my advisor, for all the helps she gave to me. I cannot imagine reading and correcting someone else’s 250-pages work for five times, but she did. It will not be exaggerated that this work will not look like this without the helps from Prof. Sun. I owe her a lot. In addition, I want to express my gratitude to Prof. Thomas Weiss and Prof. Peter Liberman, two of my committee members, for their insights to improve the work and advice to me not just writing the dissertation, but also on how to become a scholar in these years. I truly appreciate it. Furthermore, I like to express my thanks to Prof. James Hsiung and Prof. Irving Leonard Markovitz. Prof. Hsiung has been my mentor since I first came to the United States in 2007, and he will always be my most respected mentor; I learn so much from him. Prof. Markovitz read my whole dissertation draft and gave me not just great suggestions, most important, he gave me confidence on successful defending it. In the end, it will not be possible for me to finish this work without the support from my parents. Their loves to me during these years cannot be measured by words, the only thing I can think of is to love them back when I return to China. vi Perhaps this is my last student paper, but certainly it is my first “book.” I hope it is not the last one, and I will always be able to write articles and books that I truly want and believe. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 The Argument ............................................................................................................................ 2 The Phoenix Rising Identity and Patterns of Chinese Foreign Policy ................................. 6 National Identity and International Relations ..................................................................... 16 Criticisms and Response ........................................................................................................ 22 The Role of Identity in IR Studies .......................................................................................... 25 Research Methods ................................................................................................................... 28 Organization of the Dissertation ............................................................................................ 36 Chapter 1: Chinese National Identity in International Relations: Sources and Patterns .... 38 Confucian Identity .................................................................................................................. 38 Confucianism and Ancient Interstate Relations .................................................................... 42 Confucianism and Contemporary Interstate Relations ......................................................... 45 Victimhood Identity .................................................................................................................. 48 The Century of Humiliation and Chinese National Identity .................................................. 54 Identity of Revolutionary Internationalism .......................................................................... 61 The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence ........................................................................ 63 The Three Worlds Theory ...................................................................................................... 70 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 73 Chapter 2 Chinese Foreign Policy in Six Decades: Changing Principles and Positions ...... 75 The CGAR and Its Credibility ............................................................................................... 78 Broad Trends from the CGARs: 1954-2012 ......................................................................... 81 PRC Foreign Policy in 60 years: a Brief Review .................................................................. 87 The Mao era (1949-1979): Revolutionary Internationalism ................................................. 89 The Deng Era (1980-1990): Pragmatic Internationalism .................................................... 94 The Jiang Era (1991-2003): Emerging Peaceful Internationalism ..................................... 100 The Hu Era (2004-2012): Peaceful Internationalism ......................................................... 105 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 110 Part Two China’s Relations with Superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union 111 Chapter 3: The Mao era: Simultaneous Opposition to Both Superpowers ......................... 112 China’s Decision to Enter the Korean War ........................................................................ 113 Negotiations over Sino-U.S. Diplomatic Relations: Why Did Taiwan Matter? .............. 118 The Sino-Soviet Split in the 1960s-70s ................................................................................. 127 The Sino-Soviet military clashes on Zhenbao Island ........................................................