Confucian Geopolitics: Chinese Geopolitical Imaginations Of The US War On Terror

194 Pages·2020·2.539 MB·English

by  Ning An

Ning An
Confucian
Geopolitics
Chinese Geopolitical Imaginations
of the US War on Terror
Confucian Geopolitics
Ning An
Confucian Geopolitics
Chinese Geopolitical Imaginations of the US
War on Terror
123
NingAn
Guangzhou, China
ISBN978-981-15-2009-9 ISBN978-981-15-2010-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2010-5
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Preface
Tothosewhosufferfromterroristactivities,thosewhosufferfrommilitaryactions
of counterterrorism, and those who are tricked in terrorist discourses, in the US,
China, Europe, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Libya, and other areas.
Guangzhou, China Ning An
v
A Brief Introduction
This book contributes to the literature of critical geopolitics. Based on the explo-
ration of existing studies of critical geopolitics, in this book I first argue that this
bodyofliteratureonlypresentsapartialpictureoftheworldfromtheperspectiveof
politicalgeographies.Whileitdoesofferasolidlycriticalstanceintheinvestigation
ofhowspatialityinfluencestheexerciseofpower,italsohascertainlimitationsfrom
ontological and epistemological perspectives. Many studies in this literature suffer
from three problems. First, many works have empirically and overly focused on
Western states while neglecting both non-Western spaces/places and non-Western
geopoliticaltheories.Second,thisbodyofliteraturehaspaidtoomuchattentionto
mediatextsratherthantheaudiencewhoconsumethosemedia.Inthesmallamount
of audience studies, fans, who are considered to be the most passionate consumer,
have always been equated with the audience, thereby ignoring other consumption
forces, such as critics and occasional readers. Third, the majority of extant critical
geopolitical studies have been concerned with constructionism, which emphasizes
the significance of human beings in creating a space and thus influencing the
exercise of power, while much less attention has been paid to the materiality that
underlines thebeing, or object, playing any of aset ofactiveroles ina narrative.
Those limitations of critical geopolitical studies, in particular the lack of
non-Westernexamples,providenewpossibilitiesforthedevelopmentofthecurrent
field of critical geopolitics. This book focuses on Chinese political geographies, a
non-Westernsocio-politicalbackground.Itindicatesthatthesocio-politicalcontext
of China has brought potentialities for investigating the complex entanglement
betweenspatialpracticesandtheexerciseofpower.Specifically,thisbookgivesan
overview of Chinese geopolitical traditions, hua-yi distinction and Sino-centrism,
thathavehad,andstillhave,asignificantimpactuponChinesepoliticalcultures.At
the same time, this book also reviews the extant literature of Chinese geopolitics.
On thisbasis, itargues thatpreviousworksof/inChinese geopolitical studies have
been intimately associated with Western dominance, in particular the classical
geopolitical tradition in Western academia, and thus lacked the examination of
internal geopolitical voices. These overviews have built two fundamental frame-
works for this book: critical geopolitics and non-Western geopolitics. Critical
vii
viii ABriefIntroduction
geopolitics is the main theoretical framework for this book, while non-Western
geopolitics is the primary empirical framework for this book, although its contri-
bution is not limited to empirics.
ThusIarguethatgeopoliticalspaceisseldomapurespacecontrolledbyanysingle
forceoranysingleelement,butratheraheterogeneousspaceinfluencedbyamixed
range of forces and factors, including both Western and non-Western forces and
values, ruling and ruled forces and values, and socially constructed and material
factors. In particular for popular geopolitics, I argue that popular space usually
strengthenscultural hegemony,butatthesametime italsoerodes authority.It isa
spaceofdifferenceandantagonism.Armedwiththeaboveperspectives,thisbookwill
use three chapters of empirical studies to explain how various spaces, forces, and
valuesareinvolvedintheexerciseofpower.Threestoriesarenarratedinthisbook:
(1) Two different—even opposite—Chinese newspaper writings of terrorism and
the US war on terror, which can be read as an examination of how Chinese
elites practice and perform their geopolitical identities.
(2) Audience imaginations of terrorism and the US war on terror through their
readingsofChinesenewspapersasmentionedabove(1),whichcanbereadas
an investigation ofhow Chinese elitist viewsarespread andhow geopolitical
visions are established in Chinese society.
(3) DiscussionofterrorismandtheUSwaronterrorintheInternetcommunity,in
whichbothInternetusersandcomputeralgorithmsandbotshaveasignificant
impact upon the creation of public opinion.
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Imaginations of the US in Post-9/11 China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Voices from China: An Analytical Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Structure of This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2 Critical Geopolitics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Critical Geopolitics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.1 The Intellectual Roots of Critical Geopolitics . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2.2 Evolving Theories of Critical Geopolitics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3 Key Lines of Geopolitical Inquiry and Debate
for This Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3.1 Geopolitical Contexts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3.2 Audience Studies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3.3 Spaces of Geopolitics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3 Confucianism, Chinese Geopolitics and Terrorism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.2 Chinese Confucian Geopolitical Traditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.2.1 Hua-Yi Distinction and Sino-Centrism in Ancient
China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2.2 Reconsidering Hua-Yi Dichotomy in Qing and Modern
China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.3 Confucianism in Communist Controlled China (1949) . . . . 42
3.3 Geopolitical Analyses of China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.3.1 Sinophone Analyses of Chinese Geopolitics . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.3.2 Anglophone Analyses of Chinese Geopolitics . . . . . . . . . . 50
ix
x Contents
3.4 Understanding Terrorism in Different Contexts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4.1 Defining Terrorism in the Anglophone Context . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4.2 The Context of Chinese Terrorism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4 Methodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.2 Case Studies: Newspapers, Audiences and the Internet . . . . . . . . . 63
4.3 The Data Collection Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.3.1 Textual Examinations of Chinese Newspapers. . . . . . . . . . 69
4.3.2 Interviewing Chinese Audiences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.3.3 Studying the Chinese Internet Community . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.4 Ethical Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.5 The Data Organisation Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5 Chinese Discourses of Terrorism: A Geopolitical Analysis
of Chinese Newspapers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.2 A Critical Reflection on Chinese Geopolitical Voices . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.3 A Brief Statistics for People’s Daily and South Weekend . . . . . . . 97
5.4 Representations of Terrorism in People’s Daily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.4.1 People’s Daily’s Discourses of ‘Terrorism in/of
the US’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.4.2 People’s Daily’s Discourses of ‘Terrorism in/of China’ . . . 102
5.4.3 People’s Daily’s Discourses of ‘the US’s
Counterterrorism’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5.4.4 How People’s Daily’s Discourses Function in Chinese
Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
5.5 Representations of Terrorism in South Weekend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.5.1 South Weekend’s Discourses of ‘Terrorism in/of
the US’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.5.2 South Weekend’s Discourses of ‘Terrorism in/of China’. . . 114
5.5.3 South Weekend’s Discourses of ‘the US’s
Counterterrorism’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.5.4 How South Weekend’s Discourses Function in Chinese
Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Contents xi
6 Reading Terrorism and the US in Chinese Newspapers:
A Geopolitical Analysis of Audience Imaginations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6.2 Chinese Audiences: Avid Readers, Occasional Readers
and Critics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.3 Audience Imaginations of Terrorism and the US . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
6.3.1 Audience Imaginations of Terrorism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
6.3.2 Audience Imaginations of the US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.4 ‘Propaganda Model’ or ‘Active Audience Model’?. . . . . . . . . . . . 138
6.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
7 Geopolitical Visions from the Mass Chinese? Internet
Discourses of Terrorism and the US. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
7.2 The Nature of the Chinese Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
7.3 Chinese Cyber-Nationalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
7.4 Chinese Internet Discourses from Sina Weibo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
7.4.1 State Voices or Non-state Voices? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
7.4.2 The Anti-US Discourses from Sina Weibo. . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
7.4.3 The Pro-US Discourses from Sina Weibo . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
7.4.4 The Regime-Challenging Discourses from Sina Weibo. . . . 167
7.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
8.1 Main Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
8.2 Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
8.3 Limitations and Future Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
8.4 Concluding Remarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181