Chinese Nationalism and US-China Relations

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Chinese Nationalism and US-China Relations

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What is nationalism?

• A doctrine that holds that the nation should
  command the first loyalty of its people
• A movement to achieve a strong and independent
  nation
• A sense of common identity and common fate shared
  by members of the nationoften in opposition to
  some other outside reference group

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What constitutes the Chinese nation?

• Definition of nation
• a cultural community that is or seeks to become
  a political community as well
• Highly contested notion

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Yang Liwei gets a warm welcome from 150 students
from Taiwan at the China Space Center on
February 7, 2004
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How is nationalism being used?

• Political purposes
• Possible sources of legitimacy in authoritarian
  regimes

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Variants of nationalism

• Suisheng Zhao cross-cutting variants
• Ethnic nationalism
• Han
• Pragmatic nationalism
• State defined by territorial/political borders
• CCP as representative of national interests
• Liberal nationalism
• Strengthen state through democratic practices
• Nativism
• Pro-(Chinese) tradition, anti-foreign
• Anti-traditionalism
• Tradition as source of weakness, pro-foreign

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US-China Relations

• Background
• Periodization of US-China Relations since the Mao
  Era
• Cold War
• triangular relations between US-China-Soviet
  Union
• US plays the China card beginning in 1971-72
• honeymoon period
• Tiananmen Massacre (1989) and collapse of Soviet
  bloc
• End of honeymoon period
• Post 9/11 and the Global War on Terror
• New phase in US-China relations
• NY Times China Mr. Fixit 10/7/07
• China as a New Global Power
• Questions remaining about implications of China
  rise for US hegemony in the international system

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CHINA CALLING Look Whos Mr. Fixit for a Fraught
Age October 7, 2007
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Is China a Status-Quo Power or a Revisionist
Power?

• Revisionist
• Status quo
• 5 indicators
• Participation in international institutions?
• Acceptance of norms of international
  institutions?
• Attempts to change/undermine rules of
  international institutions?
• Preference for changing the balance of power?
• Use of military power to change balance?

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Participation in international institutions

• International Institutions
• UN, IMF, World Bank, etc.
• Treaty accessions
• International arms control treaties
• International human rights treaties
• International Covenant on Economic, Social,
  Cultural Rights
• International Covenant on Civil and Political
  Rights
• International Labor Organizations Conventions
• ? Next slide Chinas Intl Org. Memberships

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Acceptance of norms of international institutions

• Sovereignty
• China non-interference in domestic affairs of
  other countries (ex Myanmar protests)
• National self-determination what is the norm?
• Former colonial territories
• Others, which the US did not support
• Quebec (despite referendum)
• Kosovo
• Tibet
• Xinjiang
• Taiwan
• Non-proliferation and arms control what is the
  norm?
• Suppliers of nuclear-related technology to Iran
  in the 1990s, Pakistan in the 1980s
• China, others (France, etc.)
• Missile Technology Control Regime (1987 version)
• US State Dept re China record is, at best,
  mixed on missile-related exports
• 1996 China signed Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
• Ottawa Landmine Treaty (neither US nor China
  support)
• January 2007 successful anti-satellite (A-SAT)
  weapons test (other testers US, Soviets)
• US has not supported anti-satellite test ban

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