Description
China’s assertive diplomacy has been an important topic in recent years. With the expanding economic and military power, Beijing has become more willing to take a hard approach to dispute with other states, especially the US. Why does China perform in an assertive way in its diplomacy? Isn’t a gentle diplomacy more constructive for Sino-foreign relations? This study intends to answer this puzzling question that has been discussed by many International Relations scholars and experts. It takes three perspectives to explain China’s diplomatic assertiveness. First, assertiveness toward enemies or rivaling states has a cultural tradition in China. It is based on the collective memory that blames the conciliatory and surrender-like policy as the reason for China’s humiliating defeats by foreign powers from mid-eighteenth century. Second, assertiveness was a routine practice during the Cold War, when the Communist Party openly confronted with the US and the USSR, which has become a source of nationalistic nostalgia. Third, the blaming-nostalgia complex in Chinese nationalism induces and compels the state to perform in an assertive way for political legitimation.
