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China’s Foreign Policy and Critical Theory of International Relations

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Abstract

Informed by the ongoing structural shifts in inter-state relations, this study proposes Critical Theory of International Relations (CTIR) as a framework to analyze China’s foreign policy doctrine. It holds that the critical method best reflects China’s conceptualization of international relations due to its emphasis on the state’s principal function to lead historical progress and emancipation, as opposed to traditional theories which either ignore the state and give priority to sub-state or supra-state structures, or do not recognize its potential to serve as an emancipatory agency. This essay, in this respect, represents an introductory attempt to apply CTIR to contemporary international relations, maintaining that China’s material and ideational emergence signifies a radical transformation of the post-war global order and the role of the state.

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Notes

  1. An account of this tendency has been given in Schweller and Pu [1].

  2. In this research, a distinction is made between parallel and alternative orders. A parallel order indicates systems’ coexistence while an alternative order suggests the potential of one system overtaking the other, hence a more contentious relationship. In this sense, China’s conceptualization of international relations is one of coexistence, a condition that allows multiple systems to survive.

  3. Bottomore, The Frankfurt School, pp. 76–79.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Theodor Adorno, on the other, endorses both Hegelian and Marxian modes of immanent critique, maintaining that even though social practices involve certain structural contradictions, they might as well hold a conceptual unity since social reality is rational. See, O’Connor [8] and Buchwalter [9].

  6. Hoffman, “Critical,” pp. 236–237.

  7. Kompridis, “Disclosing Possibility,”p. 348.

  8. Agger, Critical, p. 9.

  9. Lukacs, History, p .23.

  10. Linklater, Beyond Realism and Marxism, p. 27.

  11. Cox, “Social Forces, States and World orders,” p. 210.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Ibid.

  14. Cox, “Social Forces,” p .225.

  15. For an overview of China’s foreign policy since the foundation of the Republic, see, Kim [33] and Zhao [34].

  16. Quoted in, Y. S. Cheng and Wankun, “Patterns and Dynamics of China’s International,” p. 183.

  17. See the full text, http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/51/plenary/a51-127.htm

  18. Cheng and Wankun, “Patterns and Dynamics of China’s International,” p. 183.

  19. Linklater, Beyond Realism and Marxism, p. 21.

  20. Schweller and Pu, “After Unipolarity,” p. 53.

  21. These principles have been laid out on numerous communiques and other policy statements. For a discussion on these, see, Hao and Hou [45]; Glaubitz [46] and Womack [47].

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank I would like to express my gratitude to Academia Sinica and the Institute of European and American Studies (IEAS) for the support during the course of this research. I am especially grateful to the two anonymous referees for the journal, who provided sharp and constructive feedback that enabled me to further improve the argument presented here. Nonetheless, the responsibility for incorporating their insights into the essay is entirely my own.

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  1. School of Political Science and Public Administration, Shandong University, 5 Hongjialou, Jinan City, Shandong, 250100, China

    Serafettin Yilmaz (姚 仕帆)

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Correspondence to Serafettin Yilmaz (姚 仕帆).

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Yilmaz (姚 仕帆), S. China’s Foreign Policy and Critical Theory of International Relations. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI 21, 75–88 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-015-9357-z

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