Open AccessChina and the South China Sea Conflict: A Case for Confucian Strategic Culture?
Author(s) -
Matej Šimalčík
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of indian and asian studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2717-5766
pISSN - 2717-5413
DOI - 10.1142/s2717541320500023
Subject(s) - china , chinese culture , rhetoric , confucian ethics , narrative , power (physics) , prism , assertiveness , chinese people , political science , political economy , sociology , social psychology , psychology , law , philosophy , linguistics , physics , optics , quantum mechanics
Chinese actions in the South China Sea are often viewed as proof of an assertive China, despite the Chinese claims that their Confucian values make China a peaceful power. This paper analyzes the South China Sea conflict through a prism of strategic culture theory and examines both the Chinese narrative on the conflict as well as the actual Chinese behavior in the area. Confucian norms and values provide a powerful rhetoric device utilized by the Chinese policymakers to legitimize the Chinese behavior to the domestic and to some extent also foreign audiences. However, the actual Chinese behavior rarely exhibits strong influences of Confucianism, suggesting that in actual behavior China acts in accord with realist predictions.