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.
