Why a critical geopolitics cannot be Confucian

Abstract

In this commentary, I welcome An et al.’s (2021) commitment to explore the role of Confucian thought in the contemporary practices of statehood in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Nonetheless, I also take issue with the authors’ argument that a Confucian geopolitics is needed to replace inadequate ‘Western geopolitical frameworks’. Confucian philosophies promote a hierarchical social order based on authority and subordination, and the way in which they are selectively and strategically utilized in contemporary China represents an important subject of analysis. However, they should not be viewed as a framework of analysis, as they obscure rather than shed light on spatial and class struggles – even in the hybridized stylization endorsed by An et al. Critical political economic and critical geopolitical perspectives with a global theoretical orientation and a knowledge of place and culture offer more promise in the disentangling of state practices and social relations in the PRC.

Towards a new ‘old’ theory for planning in China: The potential of Huang-Lao thought

“…The recent Confucian revival in China has been critiqued as out of step with demands of the 21 st Century (Gonzalez-Vicente, 2021). Throughout its repeated historical formulation, actually-existing Confucianism tends to be anthropocentric, paternalistic, patriarchal, bound by ritual, hierarchy, authority and subordination.…”

“…What is referred to as ‘Xi Jinping Thought’ draws on notions from Marx and Mao, but also on Confucius’ ideas and values (van Norden, 2017), identifying a possible ‘ideological continuity between Confucianism and Chinese Socialism’ (Mayer, 2018: 1227). Despite the revival of Confucianism in contemporary China, as we explore below, several scholars question its anthropocentric nature, its promotion of hierarchical orders based on patriarchal authority and subordination and its interpretation in relation to socio-political planning issues, including those relating to administration, law and environment (for example, Gonzalez-Vicente, 2021; Wang and Fan, 2019).…”