Global Ethics in the Thought of Laozi: Constructing China’s Soft Power

Abstract

The thought of Laozi is of paramount importance in Chinese traditional culture. It is significant for us to discover some meaningful factors in Laozi’s ideological systems in order to expand and strengthen China’s soft power. Coincidently, there exists something in common between the thought of Laozi and ethics in Western political philosophy. The comparison of these ethical views of different value systems would help in better understanding the advantages of Chinese traditional culture in the process of China’s soft power construction. This essay tries to summarise some common factors between the thought of Laozi and Western global ethics that can contribute to the construction of China’s soft power. This could in turn offer an approach to establishing a ‘Chinese school’ in international political theories as well as contribute to global ethics architecture. This essay has been divided into three sections. The first discusses global ethics in Western political philosophy while the second investigates global ethics in Laozi’s ideological system and then makes a contrast between Laozi’s global ethics and those in Western political philosophy. In the final section, some fundamental principles in China’s soft power construction will be explored.