Towards a Confucian geopolitics

Abstract

In this article, we argue that Confucian philosophies are vital to understanding contemporary Chinese geopolitics. Existing Western geopolitical frameworks, we contend, are insufficient for grasping the complex theories and historical legacies that underpin China’s foreign policy. This issue becomes particularly salient as scholars and the public alike try to manage complex and changing geopolitical ideas underpinning the Belt and Road Initiative, recently heralded by the Chinese state and epitomising China’s ambition for expanded global engagements. This article provides a much-needed critical assessment and review of Confucian ideas and their uptake in Chinese state theory, geographical imaginations, and geopolitical scripts. While Confucianism typically focuses on ideals of harmony, hierarchy, and normative social order, geopolitics analyses geographical influences on politics – in particular, violence and conflict. However, it is precisely within this contradictory dialectic that new possibilities for analysing the geopolitics of a rising global power can emerge.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step: Towards a Confucian geopolitics

“…What worldviews, historical struggles, geopolitical tensions, and international incursions have been relegated to the background or even omitted from analyses, thus excluded from the basis of theorizing, and how might they provide interventions into an alternative understanding of world order? An et al (2021) foreground China and its historical and contemporary geopolitical relations in their contribution to understanding alternative geopolitics, generating this and other commentaries in this volume. Needless to say, other regional stories deserve similar analysis and theorizing, from African to Latin American and others, decentring the largely European and North American dominance in the literature.…”

Still a long journey to decentralize geopolitics

“…The first is the definition of Confucianism. In the ‘hybrid’ model proposed by our article, we emphasize that ‘Confucianism is inclusive of other geopolitical and geo-economic cultures, and the adaptability and openness of Confucian culture to other ways of thinking is an important component of hybrid Confucian geopolitical theory’ (An et al, 2021). In other words, Confucianism in our model is not understood from the perspective of a fundamentalism in the narrow sense (that is, the emphasis on patriarchy, hierarchy, obedience, order, and harmony), but a generalization and hybridization of a continuation of broader traditional Chinese culture, which includes an eclectic coexistence of other cultures.…”

“…Kong (2021) re-emphasizes the convergence and divergence between Confucian geopolitical discourse and practice mentioned in our model, and invites us to elaborate on the divergences that might appear. In our discussion of the hybrid nature of the Confucian geopolitical model, we note that the current dynamics of Chinese geopolitics are multifaceted, involving the coexistence between Confucian philosophy and other elements (An et al, 2021). This hybridity is what leads to an apparent gap between narrative and practice, because other forces, which are unpredictable, will be involved in the processes of implementation.…”

“…At the outset, we want to reiterate the core point of view of our piece (An et al, 2021). Supported by many commentaries (Gonzalez-Vicente, 2021; Kong, 2021; Liu, 2021b), we insist that there was a form of geopolitics in ancient China, i.e.…”

Hong Kong as special cultural zone: Confucian geopolitics in practice

“…In June 2019, when Hong Kong was beset by civil unrest, I received an invitation to review Ning An et al’s (2021) article, ‘Towards a Confucian Geopolitics’. At the time, I was away from my adopted city, spending the summer in comparatively tranquil Cambridge, England.…”