Popular Nationalism and Chinese Foreign Policy

Abstract

This article focuses on the influence of popular nationalism oncontemporary Chinese foreign policy. After analyzing several cases ofpopular protest with nationalistic overtones, we reach the conclusion thatthe impact of popular nationalism on Chinese foreign policy is limited.Firstly, the communist regime tightly controls any attempts at unsanctifiedcollective action and allows a nationalist protest to happen only when it isfavorable for signaling China’s resolve to its diplomatic partners duringinternational crises. Second, nationalism is only a part of the contemporaryPRC’s legitimacy, as another part of it is its keeping up of the steady pace ofits economic modernization and increasing of the general welfare, whichcouldn’t be achieved without maintaining a high level of economicinterdependence with many crucial economic partners, including the USAand Japan. Third, the Chinese public is, in general, not as nationalistic as isindicated in much of the literature analyzing nationalism in thecontemporary PRC.