Strategic Culture in the Current Foreign Policy Thinking of the People’s Republic of China

Abstract

The paper presents an application of the concept of strategic culture as a possible way to analyse the foreign policy of a state by stressing its uniqueness and beliefs in contrast to commonality and rationality. The goal is to find out whether the strategic culture approach is a useful method to understand the foreign policy of the People's Republic of China. In the paper it is firstly discovered that Chinese strategic culture is perhaps not just belligerent or peaceful alone, but both at the same time in a distinct manner. Furthermore, it is argued that exactly this knowledge helps us to understand foreign policy discourse at various levels within the country: government, academia, media, and public opinion. Analysing each of the levels shows that with the exception of the media, all three remaining actors share similar belief patterns with the 'dualist' strategic culture, thus holding peaceful self-perception and keenness to use pro-active practical solutions.

China and the South China Sea Conflict: A Case for Confucian Strategic Culture?

“…Therefore, leaders need to put forth convincing moral and legal reasons for using force (Liu, 2014). As the Chinese people hold very positive feelings about the moral aspects of China's foreign policy, Chinese leaders need to frame Chinese foreign-policy behavior in accord with these norms (Turcsányi, 2014). That the Chinese population is deeply embedded within the dominant Confucian culture can be evidenced by their opinions on how to handle territorial disputes.…”

“…However, some media, which can be labeled as semi-official (or commercialized), such as Global Times, offer insights beyond government propaganda. Interestingly though, they also tend to be more nationalistic than the official media (Turcsányi, 2014). When it comes to informing about the foreign affairs in general and about the SCS conflict in particular, two media stand out both in volume and vocality of the coverage.…”