Whither China in the East Asian International Order?

Abstract

The three-year period between the Armistice in 1918 and the Washington Conference in 1921–1922 saw a ‘blank’, as it were, in the international order of East Asia. The old order was gone, a new order based on consent was yet to emerge. The pre-war balance of power and the status quo in East Asia had been totally destroyed by the defeat of enemy states, the defection of Russia, the expansion of Japan in China, and the ascendancy of the United States in world politics. There was also the growing national consciousness of the Chinese to be reckoned with. There seemed to be a recognition in world politics that East Asia was becoming a theatre in international politics in its own right. By the same token, East Asia was now left to work out its own salvation. The most interested Powers, Britain, the United States and Japan,1 were each groping in their own ways for an order, a way to deal with the legacies of the war and the prospect of post-war development. China, on the other hand, was to assert its more independent standing in its external relations. The construction of an international system with the consent of all parties concerned was the central theme around which the development of international politics in post-war East Asia was to evolve.KeywordsForeign PolicyInternational SystemWorld PoliticsInternational PoliticsInternational OrderThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.