ANALYSIS OF CHINESE NARRATIVE OF WORLD ORDER AND FOREIGN POLICY: IS CHINA A REVISIONIST OR REFORMIST POWER?

Abstract

Chinahas altered its global posture from “keeping a low profile” to “striving for achievement” since President Xi came to power. The adjusted approach to Chinese foreign policy is in the context of growing China’s state capabilities and shrinking American global leadership under Trump’s presidency. Given these structural changes in the international system, Chinais expected to play a bigger role in the world politics. Accordingly, questions have raised that how Chinaperceives the world and whether rising Chinais a reformist or revisionist power. The paper would address these questions by first revisiting the ancient Chinese idea of Tianxia, which is both a concept and practice in ancient times. As Tianxia is not applicable in the modern world, the concepts are reinvented by Chinese scholars, which are similar to ideas proposed by President Xi, offering an ideal worldview. In the third part, an empirical analysis of the Chinese foreign policy would check whetherChina’s behaviors correspond to Xi’s vision and whetherChina is a revisionist power.

Keywords

• chinese worldview
• tianxia
• confucianism
• tributary system
• belt and road
• revisionist power
• china threat