Abstract
In a book review in Millennium in 1995, Steve Smith lamented the lack of our knowledge of the state of international studies beyond the Anglo-American sphere. He said, ‘Many readers... will doubtless feel somewhat embarrassed, as I did, about knowing so little about what was being done outside a small geographical area.’3 Ken Booth held a similar view when he said in 1995 that ‘International political theory has largely been Western ideology.... The West did not want a different theoretical future because it was dominating the practical present.’4 Indeed, back in the 1960s, Stanley Hoffman pointed out that the discipline of IR was ‘born and raised in America’ and dominated by the United States because of its ‘political preeminence’.5
In China’s participation in international relations, there is no theory, only practice.
(Ni Shixiong, Feng Shaolei, and Jin Yingzhong, 1989)1
International Relations theory is an uncharted territory in China’s academia.
(Yang Yunzhong, 1994)2
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Notes
Ni Shixiong, Feng Shaolei, and Jin Yingzhong, Shiji fengyun de chan’er — dangdai guoji guanxi lilun [An Offspring of the Turbulent Century — Contemporary International Relations Theory] (Zhejiang: Zhejiang People’s Press, 1989), p. 230.
Yang Yunzhong, ‘Guoji guanxi fazhan guilu lungang [The development pattern of international relations]’, Henan Social Sciences, Zhengzhou, No. 1 (1994).
Smith’s review of A.J.R. Groom and Margot Light (eds), Contemporary International Relations: a Guide to Theory (London: Pinter Publishers, 1994), in Millennium, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring 1995), p. 154.
Ken Booth, ‘Dare not to know: international relations theory versus the future’, in Ken Booth and Steve Smith (eds), International Relations Theory Today (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995), p. 333.
Stanley Hoffman, ‘An American social science: international relations’, in James Der Derian (ed.), International Theory: Critical Investigations (Washington Square, NY: New York University Press, 1995), p. 240.
Jiang Zemin’s report at the 15th National Congress of the CCP on 12 September 1997, in Beijing Review, 6–12 October 1997, pp. 10–33.
Wang Dong, ‘Chuangjian Zhongguo tese de xiandaihua xinlilun [Create a theory of modernisation with Chinese characteristics]’, Journal of Peking University, philosophy and social sciences edn, No. 4 (1994), pp. 11–21.
Yi Jianguo, ‘A framework of agricultural modernisation with Chinese characteristics’, Dangdai shijie yu shehuizhuyi [Contemporary World & Socialism], No. 1 (1995), pp. 45–8.
Chen Mokai et al. (eds), Jianshe you Zhongguo tese shehui zhuyi gaodeng jiaoyu lilun lugang [An Analysis of the Construction of a Theory of Higher Education with Chinese Characteristics] (Northeast Normal University Press, 1994).
Wang Deren, ‘Ji guoji guanxi xueke yanjiu xinxi jiaoliu zuotanhui [A round-table discussion on the research on international relations]’, Journal of Foreign Affairs College, No. 1 (1995), p. 20.
Jia Yongxuan, ‘Guoji guanxi xinxinshi yu guoji jingjixue [New Realism in IR and IPE]’, Journal of the Institute of International Relations, No. 4 (1994), p. 12; Chen Bida and Xu Yuemei, ‘An outline of economics of international political relations’, World Economics and Politics, No. 6 (1996), pp. 16–20.
Zhang Yahang, ‘Yibang chongtulun shiping [An appraisal of general conflict theory]’, Foreign Political Studies, No. 1 (1988), p. 29.
Yan Feng, ‘Jianshe you Zhongguo tese de guoji guanxishixue [Construct a study of IR history with Chinese characteristics]’, Journal of Foreign Affairs College, No. 3 (1995), pp. 66–7.
Liu Xiaolin, Tansuo shixian renlei chijiu heping de lilun sikao [Theoretical study on exploring an everlasting peace for mankind]’, World Economics and Politics, No. 4 (1995), p. 50.
Wang Huning, Wang Huning ji [Anthology of Wang Huning] (Heilongjiang: Heilongjiang Educational Press, 1989), p. 311.
Liu Fei, ‘Shehuixue Zhongguohua yu Zhongguo shehui yunxing [Sinicising sociology and the functioning of Chinese society]’, Journal of Renmin University of China, No. 2 (1994), pp. 54–7.
Hong Yunshan, ‘Jianshe you Zhongguo tese shehui zhuyi lilun [Construct a theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics]’, Contemporary World & Socialism, No. 4 (1994), pp. 1–4.
Zhao Yuliang, Zhao Xiaochun, and Chu Shulong, ‘Guanyu jianli you Zhongguo tese de guoji guanxishe tixi — Shanghai guoji guanxi lilun taolunhui jiyao [A Summary of the Shanghai seminar on theory of international relations]’, Contemporary International Relations, No. 4 (1987), pp. 3–6.
Liu Tongshun, ‘Preface’, in Ni, Feng, and Jin, An Offspring of the Turbulent Century — Contemporary International Relations Theory.
Wang Lian, ‘“Jianshe you Zhongguo tese de guoji guanxi lilun” xueshu yantaohui zongshu [A summary of an academic conference on “the development of a theory of international relations with Chinese characteristics”]’, Studies of International Politics, No. 3 (August 1994), pp. 44–7.
For a summary report of the conference, see Chu Feng, ‘“Ershiyi shiji de Zhongguo yu shijie” [“China and the world in the twenty-first century”]’, Studies of International Politics, No. 1 (1995), pp. 53–7.
Liang Shoude, ‘Lun guoji zhengzhixue de Zhongguo tese [A discussion of the study of international politics with Chinese characteristics]’, Studies of International Politics, No. 1 (March 1994), p. 15. My emphasis.
As China’s conditions in the world, Liang cites the facts that China is the largest developing country, a rising large country, and a large socialist country in an initial phase of transition to socialism, and the only country practising ‘one country, two systems’. See Ye Zicheng, ‘Tansuo mianxiang ershiyi shiji de Zhongguo guoji zhanlue de xinsilu [In search of China’s international strategy in the 21st century]’, Studies of International Politics, No. 4 (1997), p. 2.
Liang, ‘A discussion of the study of international politics with Chinese characteristics’, p. 15.
Liang, ‘A discussion of the study of international politics with Chinese characteristics’, p. 19. See also Ren Yue, ‘Sovereignty in Chinese foreign policy: principle and practice’, in Maurice Brosseau, Suzanne Pepper, and Tsang Shu-ki (eds), China Review 1996 (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1996), pp. 145–74.
Wang, ‘A summary of an academic conference on “the development of a theory of international relations with Chinese characteristics”’, p. 46.
Wang Yizhou, ‘Lizudian yu fangfalu [Basis and methodology]’, Europe, No. 3 (1995), pp. 86–7.
See, for example, Steve Smith, ‘The self-images of a discipline: a genealogy of international relations theory’, in Ken Booth and Steve Smith (eds), International Relations Theory Today, p. 11; Iver B. Neumann, ‘John Vincent and the English school of International Relations’, in iver B. Neumann and Ole Waver (eds), The Future of International Relations: Masters in the Making? chap. 2; and K.J. Holsti, ‘America meets the “English school”: state interests in international society’, Mershon International Studies Review, Vol. 41, Supplement 2 (November 1997), pp. 275–80.
For example, Liang Shoude is one of them. In my interview with him in his office in the Department of International Politics, Peking University, on 3 March 1995.
Interview with Professor Jia Qingguo, Department of International Politics, Peking University, in Beijing, 8 March 1995.
Chen, ‘International cooperation and sovereignty’, pp. 14–15.
Feng Tejun, Song Xinning et al. (eds), Guoji zhengzhi gailun [Introduction to International Politics] (Beijing: Renmin University of China Press, 1992), pp. 36–7.
Liu, Liang, Yang, et al. (eds), A Dictionary of International Politics, p. 32.
See, for example, James C. Hsiung (ed.), Beyond China’s Independent Foreign Policy (New York: Praeger, 1985).
Feng Tejun et al. (eds), Dangdai shijie zhengzhi jingji yu guoji guanxi [Contemporary World Politics, Economics, and International Relations], 2nd edn (Beijing: Renmin University of China Press, 1994), p. 7.
These are my terminologies, as well as ‘musketeers’ and ‘Fudan school’ in the following paragraph.
Anyone arriving at the Beijing International Airport would probably have noticed the four big Chinese characters painted in gold hanging on a wall above the immigration counters — Zhong Guo bian fang — literally meaning China’s border defence (as of 7 February 1995 when I arrived at the airport to take up my exchange scholarship at Peking University; and again when i visited Beijing in early June 1998). The military, defensive mentality is apparent from this ‘front-line encounter’ with foreign visitors.
Feng Shaolei, Pan Zhiwai, Fan Jun, and Lu Lin. Guoji guanxi xinlun [New Discussions on International Relations] (Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, 1994), Preface, p. 1.
Bai, Introduction to Contemporary International Relations, p. 293.
Interviews in early 1995 at Peking University. The Department of International Politics at Peking University runs a master’s programme taught in English for foreign students. Most of them come from Africa and other developing countries on Chinese government scholarships. Their courses are run separately from courses offered to local Chinese students plus a few South Korean students.
Wang Jisi, ‘International Relations theory and the study of Chinese foreign policy’, p. 495.
Some young Chinese scholars have recently turned their attention to publishing policy-orientated papers based on their perception of China’s conditions. See, for example, Wang Shaoguang and Hu Angang, Zhongguo guojia nengli baogao [A Report on China’s National Capability] (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1994).
Zhao Baoxu, ‘Preface’, Peking University’s Research Centre for Contemporary China (ed.), Quoqing zhishi shouce [Handbook of the Knowledge of National Conditions] (Beijing: Science and Technology Press, 1990), pp. 1–2.
Huan Xiang, ‘Preface’, Shao Wenguang (trans.), James Dougherty and Robert Pfaltzgraff, Jr., Contending Theories of International Relations: a Comprehensive Survey (Beijing: World Affairs Press, 1987), pp. 1–2.
He Fang, ‘Jianli Zhongguo de guoji guanxi lilun [Establish China’s international relations theory]’, World Economics and Politics, No. 1 (1992), p. 36.
Li Shisheng, ‘Guanyu chuangjian guoji guanxi lilu tixi de jiben gousi [Basic thinking on the establishment of a system of international relations theory]’, in Liang Shoude et al. (eds), Guoji zhengzhi lunji [Collective Essays on International Politics] (Beijing: Beijing Press, 1992), p. 101.
Xiao Duan (Wang’s pen name) in reviewing Yuan Ming (ed.), Facing the Challenge of the 21st Century, in World Economics and Politics, No. 1 (1995), p. 92.
Journal of Foreign Affairs College, No. 3 (1997), pp. 86–7.
A phrase borrowed from June T. Dreyer’s China’s Political System: Modernisation and Tradition (Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1993), pp. 23–4, as one of the seven schools of analysis of Chinese politics which stresses the importance of the influence of culture and tradition on Chinese politics. The phrase also means ‘that China is unique, and therefore few readily available Western theories can be applied directly to its study’. See Hua Shiping’s book review of Liu Xiuwu R., Western Perspectives on Chinese Higher Education: a Model for Cross-cultural Inquiry (Cranbury, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996), in Perspectives on Political Science, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Fall 1997), p. 233.
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Chan, G. (1999). Towards an IR Theory with Chinese Characteristics. In: Chinese Perspectives on International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230390201_10
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