The “China Threat” in American Self-Imagination: The Discursive Construction of other as Power Politics

Abstract

Argues that the China threat argument in mainstream international relations literature in the United States is derived, primarily, from a discursive construction of otherness. Construction which is predicated on a particular narcissistic understanding of the U.S. self and on a positivist-based realism, concerned with absolute certainty and security; Concern which is central to the dominant U.S. self-imagery.