Abstract
The nationalist narrative in China over the South China Sea islands is shaped by the perception that the United States is trying to contain China, as well as a belief that the smaller Southeast Asian claimant countries have wrongfully taken control over the islands, which China believes to be an integral part of its territory. However, Chinese nationalist feeling over the South China Sea is less strong than that over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, given that the latter touches on the “history issues” that exist between China and Japan, which are absent between China and Southeast Asia. This hints that China may have more room for maneuver with regards to its relations with the South China Sea claimant countries than it does over the East China Sea disputes.
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Notes
- 1.
Such a view is echoed in the following article: Sutter (2012).
- 2.
Anderson (2006).
- 3.
Hughes (2009).
- 4.
Zhao (2013).
- 5.
Ibid., pp. 543–546.
- 6.
This information is taken from Zhao’s (2002).
- 7.
Lee (2007).
- 8.
For details, please see: Perry (2007). Perry details the continuation of China’s revolutionary tradition in modern Chinese politics. To this we may also add events such as the Beijing Olympics, by which the whole nation can be considered to have been mobilized into a mass campaign to ensure its success.
- 9.
The literature review in this paragraph about the Chinese government and nationalism is derived from the author’s unpublished master’s thesis “In Trade We Trust: An Investigation on the Links between Trade and Diplomatic Tensions in Sino-Philippine and Sino-Vietnamese Relations”, presented to the committee for Regional Studies East Asia at Harvard University, 28 March 2013, 62–63.
- 10.
Christopher (2011).
- 11.
Lei (2005).
- 12.
Wang (2010).
- 13.
Zuo (2010).
- 14.
Liang (2010).
- 15.
Wu (2013).
- 16.
This observation was made during the author’s several trips to China over the past 3 years.
- 17.
The information in this paragraph reflected the contents of the following webpage as of 15 September 2014: “Nanhai Zhengduan” (The South China Sea Dispute), Baidu Baike Website, http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=GByulS6Zf-2PiQDcvSvfEjAPrg_uDiQr9h-suWvb5q5dEFkktm4rNAfPmBPNndiaryykSEuzDzzUsJiz752I6_
- 18.
Vuving (2014).
- 19.
- 20.
Wu (2013, p.159).
- 21.
All information in this paragraph is taken from the chapter “The Origins of Public Mobilization” in Reilly (2012).
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Lim, K.S. (2016). China’s Nationalist Narrative of the South China Sea: A Preliminary Analysis. In: Fels, E., Vu, TM. (eds) Power Politics in Asia’s Contested Waters. Global Power Shift. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26152-2_8
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