Convincing the World of China’s Tradition to Pursue Universal Harmony

Abstract

As China’s comprehensive national power grows, its efforts to reduce the “China threat” perception have become more challenging. In line with the Chinese leadership’s current theme of peace and harmony in China’s foreign policy line, Chinese scholars have been highlighting the same theme in their research on China’s traditional strategic culture. Their research criticizes Western cosmopolitanism and praises the peaceful nature of China’s traditional “tianxia” concept. The exploitation of traditional strategic culture to provide re-assurance to the international community has now been raised to the official level, as reflected by the White Paper on “China’s Peaceful Development” released by the State Council’s Information Office on September 6, 2011. This probably means that it will be a major element of China’s public diplomacy for the foreseeable future. These efforts, however, may not have a significant impact because of rising nationalism in the region and the moderate escalation of existing territorial disputes involving China and its neighbors.