As China’s power and status
continue to grow, the big question for the whole world is how Beijing will use its
newly acquired power to influence the world. It is safe to say that nobody
within China has a satisfactory answer to this question. Still, we should pay
serious attention to what Chinese scholars themselves say about China’s future
ambitions. After all, outsiders often do not possess the necessary internal
knowledge about China to depict an accurate picture of the country’s ambitions
and foreign policy.
Within
the field of Chinese foreign policy, the current generation of prominent
international relations (IR) scholars — including Wang Jisi, Qin Yaqing, Yan
Xuetong, Shi Yinhong, Wang Yizhou and others — have made great contributions to
ameliorating the understanding of China internationally. But there will soon be
a new generation of Chinese IR scholars who will likely shape the main debates
that will come to guide Chinese foreign policy. It is time now to pay equal
attention to them if we hope for a smooth relationship between China and the
world.
By
surveying some senior scholars in Chinese foreign policy, I have complied a
list of the top 10 young IR scholars in China today. They are (in alphabetical
order): Chen Yudan (Fudan University), Chen Zheng (Shanghai Jiaotong
University), Li Wei (Renmin University), Lin Minwang (Foreign Affairs College),
Liu Feng (Nankai University), Mao Weizhun (Nanjing University), Ren Lin
(Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), Yang Yuan (Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences), Yin Jiwu (Beijing Foreign Studies University), and Zuo Xiying
(Renmin University).
These
scholars represent a diverse group with very different research interests and
theoretical backgrounds. Their analyses of and recommendations for Chinese
foreign policy, therefore, also vary.
Among
them, Lin Minwang, Liu Feng, Yang Yuan, and Zuo Xiying are security experts
and, all of them, more or less, follow a realist tradition in analyzing China’s
foreign relations. That is to say, their analyses usually start with China’s
national interests and then proceed to discuss how China and other countries
can seek common ground while preserving their differences. However, none of
them is an offensive realist like the renowned U.S. scholar John Mearsheimer.
They all caution against an overly assertive Chinese foreign policy, partly
because such a policy will bring more harm rather than good to China’s national
interests.
Given
that China’s rise is not just a matter of security, other young scholars focus
their attention on more ‘low politics’ issues, such as human rights norms,
global environmental governance, the refugee crisis, and so on. For example,
Chen Zheng has studied how China’s attitudes toward the norm of “responsibility
to protect” has changed over time. Similarly, Ren Lin has explored the concept
of non-traditional security in global governance. Her field echoes the rise of
China in global governance studies in a way.
Li Wei
from Renmin University is an expert on international political economy,
especially on the internationalization of the renminbi and its implications for
the U.S.-led global order. Needless to say, such work is of critical importance
to China’s future as its currency has been gradually gaining influence across
the world, evidenced by its recent inclusion into the
International Monetary Fund’s reserve currency basket.
Chen
Yudan from Fudan University is more interested in traditional Chinese culture
and seeks to understand how non-realist ideas and traditions shape Chinese
foreign policy. This is very much a constructivist approach to international
politics, which is also gaining popularity in China. Alexander Wendt’s
path-breaking Social Theory of International Politics was
translated into Chinese in the early 2000s by Qin Yaqing, of the China Foreign
Affairs University.
Last but
not least, Yin Jiwu, from Beijing Foreign Studies University, adopts a unique
approach to the study of Chinese foreign policy. He is a major scholar of
psychological frameworks in understanding how Chinese leaders develop foreign
policies.
It is
clear from the above brief survey that China’s young IR scholars are just as
diverse as their American counterparts in terms of their research interests,
theories, and methods. Indeed, some of them received their doctoral training in
the United States and Europe while others were trained at China’s top
universities. Given time, they will collectively play an important role in
contributing to China’s peaceful rise and ensuring Beijing’s continued role in
forging a harmonious international society. By Dingding Chen
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