China Looks at the West

Identity, Global Ambitions, and the Future of Sino-American Relations

Christopher A. Ford

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780813165400
• eBook ISBN: 9780813165417
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Chinese History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Chinese leaders have long been fascinated by the United States, but have often chosen to demonize America for perceived cultural and military imperialism. Especially under Communist rule, Chinese leaders have crafted and re-crafted portrayals of the United States according to the needs of their own agenda and the regime's self-image—often seeing America as an antagonist and foil, but sometimes playing it up as a model.

In China Looks at the West, Christopher A. Ford investigates what these depictions reveal about internal Chinese politics and Beijing's ambitions in the world today. In particular, Ford emphasizes the importance of China's "return" to global preeminence in state images, which has become an essential concept in the regime's self-image and legitimacy. He also examines the history of Chinese intellectual engagement with America, surveying the ways in which Chinese elites have manipulated attitudes toward the United States, and revealing how leaders from Qing dynasty officials to Mao Zedong and from to Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping have altered and reconstructed this narrative to support their own political agendas.

Ford concludes the volume with a series of scenario-based alternatives for how China's approaches to understanding itself and other nations may evolve in the future. Based on extensive research, including interviews with Chinese scholars and researchers, this groundbreaking study is essential reading for policymakers and readers seeking to understand current and future Sino-American relations.

Notes

INTRODUCTION

1. Biwu Zhang, Chinese Perceptions of the U.S.: An Exploration of China’s Foreign Policy Motivations (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2012), 13, 15, 33–34.

2. David Shambaugh, Beautiful Imperialist: China Perceives America, 1972–1990 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), 297.

3. See, for instance, Hongshan Li, “Introduction: Image and Perception in U.S.-China Relations,” in Image, Perception, and the Making of U.S.-China Relations, ed. Hongshan Li and Zhaohui Hong (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998), 1 (referring to “the ‘love-hate’ syndrome in U.S.-China relations”); Zhao Mei, “Chinese Views of America,” in Chinese Images of the United States, ed. Carola McGiffert (Washington, DC: CSIS Press, 2005), 59 (referring to “a love-hate ambivalence”); and David Shambaugh, remarks at the Hudson Institute workshop “China Looks at the U.S. System” (April 5, 2012) (describing a “love-hate” relationship as “the overarching feature” of Sino-American relations and attributing this formulation to Harold Isaacs).

4. Sun Zhe, director, Tsinghua Center for U.S.-China Relations, remarks to the author in Beijing (April 24, 2012).

5. Chen Shengluo, “Chinese College Students’ Views of America After September 11, 2001,” in McGiffert, ed., Chinese Images of the United States, 108 (describing “bifurcated” views); Yufan Hao and Lin Su, “Contending Views: Emerging Chinese Elite’s Perception of America,” in China’s Foreign Policy Making: Societal Force and Chinese American Policy, ed. Yufan Hao and Lin Su (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), 19, 21 (describing “double-sided” image).

6. Xu Jing, associate professor, School of Journalism and Communications, Peking University, interview with the author in Beijing (October 22, 2011).

7. Zhang Chuanjie, “Chinese Citizens’ Attitudes toward the United States from 2001–2009,” in The United States and China: Mutual Public Perceptions, ed. Douglas G. Spelman (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2011), 17, 18.

8. Wang Yizhou, director and associate dean, School of International Studies, Peking University, interview with the author in Beijing (April 20, 2012).

1. INFORMATION AND THE STATE

1. See generally, for instance, Christopher A. Ford, The Mind of Empire: China’s History and Modern Foreign Relations (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2010), 121–31.

2. Quoted in Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn, China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power (New York: Vintage, 1995), 396 (chapter by Wudunn).

3. Ibid., 451.

4. Kenneth Lieberthal, Governing China: From Revolution through Reform, 2nd ed. (New York: Norton, 2004), 63.

5. Richard McGregor, The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers (New York: Harper Collins, 2010), 13.

6. Zhao Qiang, “Loss of Control over Public Opinion: A Catalyst for the Breakdown of the Soviet Union,” Seeking Truth (Qiushi), November 1, 2010 (translated and reprinted in David Bandurski, “Lose Public Opinion and We Lose It All,” China Media Project, November 2, 2010, http://cmp.hku.hk/2010/11/02/8448).

7. Anne-Marie Brady, introduction to China’s Thought Management, ed. Anne-Marie Brady (Oxford: Routledge, 2012), 1, 8. See also Anne-Marie Brady, Marketing Dictatorship: Propaganda and Thought Work in Contemporary China (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), 1.

8. Anne-Marie Brady, “The Olympics as a Campaign of Mass Distraction,” in Brady, ed., China’s Thought Management, 11.

9. See Lieberthal, Governing China, 223; and Brady, Marketing Dictatorship, 9–14.

10. McGregor, The Party, 229.

11. Quoted in “Emphasizing Positive News,” China Media Project, n.d., http://cmp.hku.hk/2007/07/05/421.

12. Quoted in ibid.

13. See “The Four Unchangeables,” China Media Project, May 22, 2006, http://cmp.hku.hk/2007/07/05/419.

14. Quoted in “Old Party Press Control Buzzword Takes a Back Seat in More Subtle Censorship Approach,” China Media Project, February 2, 2007, http://cmp.hku.hk/2007/02/02/170.

15. Hu Jintao, June 2008 speech, quoted in David Bandurski, “Propaganda Leaders Scurry Off to Carry Out the ‘Spirit’ of Hu Jintao’s ‘Important’ Media Speech,” China Media Project, June 25, 2008, http://cmp.hku.hk/2008/06/25/1079.

16. Zheng Xiangdong, “Correct Guidance of Ideology and Public Opinion Is an Important Factor in the Harmony of Society,” People’s Daily, March 7, 2007, translated and reprinted in part in “People’s Daily Article Underscores Determination of Top Leaders to Keep a Tight Rein on the Press,” China Media Project, March 7, 2007, http://cmp.hku.hk/2007/03/07/198.

17. Quoted in Zhang Qin, “Li Changchun: Creating a Favorable [Public Opinion] Environment for the 90th Anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party,” Xinhua News Agency, June 14, 2011. See also David Bandurski, “China’s Media Czars Dial Up the Pomp,” China Media Project, June 15, 2011, http://cmp.hku.hk/2011/06/15/13267.

18. See, for instance, “The Good of Society before All Else,” China Media Project, n.d., http://cmp.hku.hk/2007/03/20/213 (discussing importance of promoting support for economic reform policy).

19. Quoted in Brady...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• I. Challenges of Sinological Epistemology
• II. Images of America and the Telos of China’s Return
• III. America in Chinese Politics in Deng’s Era of Reform
• IV. Repression, Nationalism, Chineseness, and the Roaring Nineties
• V. Chinese Discourse in the New Century
• VI. China and America in a New World—the Inflection Point of 2008–2009
• VII. China, America, and the Future
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index