Chinese visions of world order: post‐hegemonic or a new hegemony? (original) (raw)

2008, International Studies Review

Lately, there has been increasing interest among international relations (IR) scholars in Chinese thought, both as an alternative to Eurocentric IR, and because the PRC as an emerging power will soon have the institutional power to promote its view of the world. Rather than look for suitable Chinese parallels to ''international,'' ''security,'' or other mainstream concepts, this article will examine the concept of ''Tianxia Allunder-Heaven'' to understand Chinese visions of world order. Tianxia is interesting both because it was key to the governance and self-understanding of over two millennia of Chinese empire, and also because discussion of Tianxia is becoming popular again in the twenty-first century as a Chinese model of world order that is universally valid. After outlining a popular discussion of the ''magnanimous'' and all-inclusive Tianxia system, the article will examine some of the theoretical problems raised by this reading of Tianxia, in particular how its approach to ''Otherness'' encourages a conversion of difference, if not a conquest of it. It will conclude that Tianxia's most important impact will not be on the world stage, but in China's domestic politics, where it blurs the conceptual boundaries between empire and globalism, nationalism, and cosmopolitanism. Hence rather than guide us toward a post-hegemonic world order, Tianxia presents a new hegemony where imperial China's hierarchical governance is updated for the twenty-first century. Lately, there has been increasing interest among international relations (IR) scholars in Chinese thought, both as an alternative to Eurocentric IR, and because the PRC as an emerging power will soon have the institutional power to promote its view of the world. 1 While prominent Western experts have concluded that China is a status quo power that is unlikely to challenge the international system (Johnston and Ross 2006; Shambaugh 2006; Shirk 2007; Johnston 2008), an idealized version of China's imperial past is now inspiring Chinese scholars' and policymakers' plans for China's future-and the world's future. Rather than simply provide suitably Chinese parallels to ''international,'' ''security,'' or other mainstream IR concepts, many public intellectuals in Greater China have been promoting the ancient concept of ''Tianxia'' to understand Chinese visions of world order. Tianxia is interesting both because it was key to the governance and self-understanding of over two millennia of Chinese empire, and also because 1 I would like to thank the Centre for Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester and the British Academy ⁄ Chinese Academy Social Sciences visiting fellowship for funding fieldwork in China. I received helpful comments at the ISA 2007 symposium on Responsible Scholarship, and from