Why is there no Chinese IR theory?

1. Why is there no Chinese IR theory?

Because China did not have the space and opportunity to develop a full fledge and complete IR theoretical framework throughout its 5000 years of history. As compared to the Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment and French Revolution that brought about waves of emancipation of thinking, flourishing of philosophies and finally led to the development of various theories and methods to describe and predict inter-European states’ behaviour; China had seen a vacuum, in terms of development of new philosophies, from Spring and Autumn and Warring States Era to contemporary China. It has been vacuum for the last 2500 years. The Confucianism and Taoism attracted much concerns nowadays are in fact ancient philosophies that are 2500 years old. China had not been able to produce new philosophies, but only refining these philosophies.

2. Why was there not space and opportunity for China to do so?

Because the ancient China had been able to unify itself more than 2000 years ago and China was hardly a fragmented nation throughout its classical history. Furthermore, the ancient philosophy of Chinese politic was about cultural imperialism and not political imperialism. The emperors view themselves as the “Sons of God” (Tian Zi, 天子), which were the rulers of the entire world/universe. In the eyes of the emperors, there were not other nation-states; “Middle Kingdom” (Zhong Tu, 中土) was the only nation-state. Since the unification of ancient China under Qin Shi Huang, the philosophies that developed in Spring and Autumn, and Warring States Era, were further developed for the emperors’ use to rule the country, not to deal with neighbouring states. Geographically, China was a rather isolated nation-state throughout its 2000 years of history. It rarely had opportunity to deal with “other” states in the world, until westerners came with vessels and knocked on its door with guns and cannons in the Qing Dynasty. China did not have the opportunity and necessity to develop its ancient philosophies, such as Taoism and Confucianism, into IR theories and methods. Many would argue that tributary system is way China dealing with its neighbouring states. I would however argue that the Chinese emperors viewed themselves as the Sons of God and China being the Middle Kingdom, the emperors did not regard the nomadic tribes that harassing ancient Chinese people as another nation-state or neighbouring state. Such Chinese view can also be applied to the Japanese, which in the eyes of Chinese were pirates (Wo Kou, 倭寇) who kept harassing Chinese coastal cities.

Towards the end of Qing Dynasty, China was so weak that the revolutionists and even the senior officials were overwhelmed by the Western advancement. The Qing government sent young Chinese to study in Europe and America. There were social movement promoting science and democracy by the revolutionists. Qing Dynasty was so weak to the extent when it was overthrown the revolutionists virtually gave up entirely the ancient Chinese philosophies that had governed China for more than 2000 years. Three Principles of the People (San-min Doctrine), which was borrowed from the West, was introduced by Sun Yat-sen. At the same time, Mao Zedong brought Marxism into China.

While opportunity arose for China to participate in the process of development of contemporary IR theories in the interwar years, China slumped into civil war between KMT and Communist Party. Mao Zedong’s Three Worlds Theory budded only in the post WWII 1940s, took shape in the 1960s and presented to the world in the 1970s. If Three Worlds Theory was the first Chinese IR theory, it was 20 or 30 years behind the West. The Cold War had in fact encouraged the further development of Western IR theories. On the other hand, China was again slumped into various political struggles from 1950s to 1970s. It again missed the opportunity of participating the process.

The social aspect of China also did not allow it to cultivate a new pool of philosophers, much less the IR theorists. Throughout the history, China had produced a lot of poets, writers, artists, and inventors, but not philosophers.

3. What could falsify my hypothesis?

There were 45 years in Song Dynasty where the Chinese had to deal with the Mongols, who established Yuan Dynasty after the end of Song Dynasty. However, the Mongols were so strong that Song officials rarely had chance to develop theories and methods to deal with the Mongols before it was eliminated.