Introduction: Identifying China in International Relations

Abstract

In this book I address both “fit” and “fashion”—hence the title. I focus on how China has had to restyle itself to gain recognition from an external audience that was once peripheral but is now the arbiter of fashion. A China used to turning heads before a select audience, largely of its own choosing, now seeks to turn heads far and wide. It aspires to be the fashion capital of the world and has successfully incorporated its own traditions into its designs while producing the finest cutters, seamstresses, and materials in the world. But it alone cannot decide what the “Spring Look” should be. To ensure the return of buyers, it has to keep its styles familiar. And even though the buyers are intrigued, they still flock to the runways of Paris and New York.

The most important thing in social life is how actors represent Self and Other. … Society, in short, is “what people make of it.”¹

Although China cannot be said to be fully cooperative in every issue of international relations, it has pursued a more accommodative, although occasionally erratic posture over the last 150 years. Indeed the general pattern and direction of China’s international behavior, albeit more in the global political economy than in global high politics, has been a slow but steady movement from conflict to cooperation. And China is more cooperative in high-profile multilateral institutional or negotiating settings than in low profile bilateral negotiations.²