Abstract
Both Chinese and Western scholars of IR agree that there is a large number of actors in world politics, states and international organisations (IOs) being the more important ones. Beyond that, they differ in their respective recognition of the importance of other actors. Scholars in the West place more emphasis on individuals, social and interest groups, and multi-national corporations, while Chinese scholars, at least those in the traditional school, stress the importance of such units as political parties (as a class) and national liberation movements.2
State sovereignty, the lifeblood of a state, stands above all else.
(Sha Yang)1
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Notes
Beijing Review, 21–27 August 1995, p. 4.
See Zhao Xiaochun, ‘Goujian guoji guanxi lilun tixi fangfa chutan [A probe into the methodology for forming a theoreric {sic} system in international relations]’, Journal of the Institute of International Relations, No. 2 (1 June 1994), pp. I-6.
Liang and Hong, Introduction to International Political Studies, p. 41.
Yuan (ed.), Facing the Challenge of the 21st Century: International Relations Studies in China, Preface, p. 17.
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. 151–2.
Sha Yang in Beijing Review, 21–27 August 1995, p. 4.
Chen Lemin, ‘Guoji hezuo yu zhuquan [International cooperation and sovereignty]’, Shijie zhishi [World Affairs], Beijing, No. 5 (1992), pp. 14–15.
Yuan Jingdong, ‘Multilateral intervention and state sovereignty: Chinese views on UN peacekeeping operations’, Political Science, Wellington, Vol. 49, No. 3 (January 1998), pp. 275–95.
Wu Xingzuo, ‘Guoji zhuquan: minzu guojia yongheng de yuanze [State sovereignty: the lasting principle of the nation-state]’, Journal of the Institute of International Relations, No. 4 (1995), pp. 57–9.
Guo Longlong, ‘Guoji ganyu he guojia zhuquan wenti [International intervention and the problem of state sovereignty]’, International Survey, No. 6 (1994), pp. 2–3.
Wu, ‘State sovereignty: the lasting principle of the nation-state’, pp. 60–1.
Wang Yizhou, ‘A study of hierarchical system in international society’, Europe, No. 3 (1996), pp. 4–12 and 45.
Chen Jie, ‘China’s Spratly policy’, Asian Survey, Vol. 34, No. 10 (October 1994), p. 894.
Wang Yizhou, Dangdai guoji zhengzhi beijingxia de guojia zhuquan wenti [State sovereignty in the contemporary international political conditions]’, Europe, No. 6 (1993), pp. 6–16.
Yuan (ed.), Facing the Challenge of the 21st Century, Preface, p. 19.
Wang Yizhou, ‘Diyuan zhengzhi, guoji guanxi, Zhongguo shijiao [Geopolitics, international relations, China’s angle-of-view]’, Academic Journal, Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, bimonthly, No. 3 (1994), p. 72.
See Joseph Frankel, National Interest (London: Pall Mall, 1970), p. 15.
Yan Xuetong, ‘Deng Xiaoping de guojia liyiguan [Deng Xiaoping’s view on national interests]’, Xiandai guoji guanxi [Contemporary International Relations], No. 7 (July 1994), pp. 28–32.
Yan Xuetong, Zhongguo guojia liyi fengxi [Analysis of China’s National Interest] (Tianjin: Tianjin People’s Press, 1996), abstract, p. 2.
Yan Feng, ‘Zhuquan pingdeng shi guoji guanxi de genben yuanze [Sovereignty equality is the basic principle in international relations]’, Zhendi [Encampment], Beijing, No. 3 (1992), pp. 33–4.
Zhao Xiaochun, ‘Nengzhanhou guojia liyi de xinbianhua [New changes in national interest after the end of the Cold War]’, Journal of the Institute of International Relations, No. 1 (1995), pp. 1–7.
Liang and Hong, Introduction to International Political Studies, p. 10.
Zhong Yang, ‘Does ideology matter? A case study of Sino—ex-Soviet Republics relations’, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4 (December 1994), pp. 463–77; and ‘The fallen wall and its aftermath: comparative study of foreign policy changes in emerging democracies in eastern Europe’, East European Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 2 (1994), pp. 235–57.
A detailed defensive statement is contained in China Daily, 27 February 1995, p. 4.
Zhu Jianrong of Toyo Gakuin University speaking in the symposium on the ‘Japan—China—US relations in the coming era’, organised by Yomiuri Shimbun and held in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, on 26 May 1995.
Of China’s 1.2 billion people, about 58 million are members of the CCP, which is the largest political party in the world in terms of membership. See Gerald Chan, ‘China’s vanguard confers: the 14th Communist Party Congress’, New Zealand International Review, Vol. 18, No. 2 (March/April 1993), p. 18; and China Daily, 31 December 1997, p. 3.
The Constitution of the Communist Party of China (1982), in James C.F. Wang, Contemporary Chinese Politics: an Introduction, 5th edn (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1995), p. 346.
Cai Jinpei, Lu dangji guanxi sixiang yuance de xinfazhan [A discussion of new developments in the four principles of party-to-party relations]’, Dangdai shijie yu shehui zhuyi [Contemporary World & Socialism], Beijing, No. 2 (1995), p. 40. Cai is a member of the China’s Central Communist Party School; Beijing Review, 6–12 October 1997, p. 30.
Jiang’s report delivered at the 15th National Party Congress on 12 September 1997, Beijing Review, 6–12 October 1997, p. 30.
Cai, ‘A discussion of new developments in the four principles of partyto-party relations’, p. 42.
Beijing Review, 29 December 1997 to 4 January 1998, p. 7. For a historical analysis of the PRC’s inter-party relations with other countries, see Hu Hao, Xueshi Deng Xiaoping guanyu dangji guanxi de lilun [Theory by Deng Xiaoping on inter-party relations]’, Journal of Foreign Affairs College, No. 3 (1997), pp. 33–6.
Cai, ‘A discussion of new developments in the four principles of partyto-party relations’, p. 43.
Far Eastern Economic Review, 15 January 1998, p. 28.
Gerald Chan, China and International Organisations: Participation in Nongovernmental Organisations since 1971 (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1989); ‘China and international organisations’, in Lo Chi-kin, Tsui Ka-yuen, and Suzanne Pepper (eds), China Review 1995 (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1995), chap. A7; and “‘Three Chinas” and international organisations after 1997’, Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 6, No. 16 (November 1997), pp. 435–48.
The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (HK) Co. Ltd, 1996).
Progress in China’s Human Rights Cause in 1996 (Beijing: Information Office, State Council, 31 March 1997), in Beijing Review, 21–27 April 1997, pp. 11–19.
Frank Ching in Far Eastern Economic Revieiw, 18 January 1996, p. 30. China Directory 1997 (Tokyo: Radiopress, 1996) lists 127 of these organisations under the title ‘mass organisations’. They are mainly friendship associations, welfare associations, foundations, and those dealing with youth, women, and union affairs. An expanded list can be found in Chinese-English Manual of Chinese Organisations (Beijing: China Today Press, 1992).
For details, see Beijing Review, 17–23 November 1997, p. 24, and China Daily, 29 October 1997, p. 4.
The Evening Post, Wellington, 31 October 1997, p. 10.
Zhou Wei, ‘The study of human rights in the People’s Republic of China’, in James T.H. Tang (ed.), Human Rights and International Relations in the Asia-Pacific Region (London and New York: Pinter, 1995), p. 83.
Xin Chunying in Human Rights Dialogue, New York, Vol. 3 (December 1995), p. 5.
Progess in China’s Human Rights Cause in 1996.
Beijing Review, special issue on ‘Human rights: progress in China’, January 1996, p. 10.
Ibid., 16–22 June 1997, p. 15; 21–27 April 1997, p. 14.
Ibid., 16–22 December 1996, p. 4.
Michael C. Davis (ed.), Human Rights and Chinese Values: Legal, Philosophical, and Political Perspectives (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. vii and 21. See also Beijing Review, 4–10 March 1996, pp. 18–21.
Beijing Review, 14–20 April 1997, p. 7.
Ibid., 16–22 December 1996, p. 4; 16–22 June 1997, p. 14.
Liang Lihua, ‘Renquan waijiao [Human rights diplomacy]’, Contemporary World and Socialism, No. 1 (1995), p. 65. Professor Wang Huning of Fudan University, Shanghai, calls this kind of hegemonism ‘cultural hegemonism’. He also uses the term ‘cultural sovereignty’. See Wang Huning, ‘Cultural expansion and cultural sovereignty’, in Wang Jisi (ed.), Civilisations and International Politics, p. 342.
China Daily, 21 March 1996, p. 4. For seven consecutive years up to 1997 the United States and some European countries had presented but failed to gain enough support to pass a motion at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to denounce China. See Beijing Review, 16–22 June 1997, p. 15.
Xin in Human Rights Dialogue, p. 5.
Interestingly, the Party School of the CCP Central Committee has a Research Centre on Human Rights. See China Daily, 6 February 1997, p. 4.
Note the use of the term ‘socialist democracy’ instead of ‘socialism’. TV news, Beijing, 10 March 1995.
Yu Wanli, ‘Guojia zhuquan yu guojia liyi de lilun yu xianshi [The theory and practice of state sovereignty and national interest]’, Studies in International Politics, No. 2 (1997), p. 139.
Yan, Analysis of China’s National Interest, p. 1.
Ibid. See also Deng Yong, ‘The Chinese conception of national interests in international relations’, The China Quarterly, No. 154 (June 1998), pp. 308–29.
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© 1999 Gerald Chan
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Chan, G. (1999). Units of Analysis: The State. In: Chinese Perspectives on International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230390201_7
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