Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T06:05:43.259Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

War, Peace, and China's Soft Power: A Confucian Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Daniel A. Bell
Daniel A. Bell*
Affiliation:
Tsinghua University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The contemporary Chinese intellectual Kang Xiaoguang has argued that Chinese soft power should be based on Confucian culture, the most influential Chinese political tradition. But which Confucian values should form the core of China's soft power? This paper first explores the coexistence of state sovereignty and utopian cosmopolitanism through an analysis of Confucian tradition up to contemporary Chinese nationalism. It insists on the exogenous roots of the cosmopolitan ideal and its relations with the ideal of a harmonious political order and a global peace. Then, it compares the philosophy of ‘all-under-heaven’ in its classical and contemporary forms, with Mencius’ theory of a ‘hegemon’, a theory that still informs the moral language that Chinese intellectuals use to evaluate foreign policy, especially regarding morally-justified warfare. It ends on a reflection on the role that Mencius's theory of just and unjust war can play in the contemporary Chinese context and to help understanding and defining the stance of China in the international geo-political context.

Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , February 2009 , pp. 26 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bell, D.A. (2006) Beyond Liberal Democracy. Princeton: Princeton UP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bran, Michel (2007) ‘Pékin organise la défense des travailleurs chinois en Roumanie’, Le Monde, 21 June.Google Scholar
Chan, J. (2007) ‘Territorial Boundaries and Confucianism’, in Bell, D. A. (ed.) Confucian Political Ethics. Princeton: : Princeton UP, pp. 61–84.Google Scholar
Cheng, Anne (2002) Histoire de la pensée chinoise. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Confucius, (1999) Analects. A Philosophical Translation, ed. Ames, R., Jr, H. Rosemont. New York: Ballantine Books.Google Scholar
De Bary, Th. and Bloom, I. (eds) (2000) Sources of Chinese Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Downs, Erica (2007) ‘The Fact and Fiction of Sino-African Energy Relations’, China Security 3(3): 42–68; www.wsichina.org/cs7_3.pdf.Google Scholar
Fravel, Taylor (2005) ‘Regime Insecurity and International Cooperation’, International Security 30(2): 46–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Th. L. (2007) ‘The Power of Green’, NYT Magazine, 15 April.Google Scholar
Gill, Bates and Yanzhong, Huang (2006) ‘Sources and Limits of China's “Soft Power’”, Survival, 4(2): 17–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gang, Gong (2003) ‘Shei shi quanqiu lunli de daidao shiwei' [Who is the armed Guard of Global Ethics?], Nanfang chuang, September, http://www.nfcmag.com/news/newsdisp.php3?NewsId=296&mod=.Google Scholar
Shiping, Hua (2001) Utopianism in Chinese Political Culture. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Ivanhoe, Ph. J. (1990) Ethics in the Confucian Tradition. Atlanta: Scholars Press.Google Scholar
Mencius (1970) ed. Lau, D. C.. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Lexiong, Ni (2001), ‘The Implications of Ancient Chinese Military Culture for World Peace’, in Bell, D. A. (ed.) Confucian Political Ethics. Princeton: Princeton UP, pp. 201–25.Google Scholar
Smith, A. (2006) The theory of moral sentiments. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael (1992) Just and Unjust War. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar