Leiden University Student Repository

Hu, Nian Dong (2020)

Demystifying Chinese Foreign Policy: A Confucian Approach to International Relations

Bachelor thesis | International Studies (BA)

This thesis proposes the ancient Chinese philosophy of Confucianism as an analytical lens to study Chinese foreign policy. The need for a framework consisting of Confucian teachings emerges from the limited perspectives mainstream Western IR can offer to the theories evolving around the rise of China. There is value in looking at Chinese foreign relations through Confucianism because it shows cultural and social behavioural aspects, which govern Chinese society, and thus, contributes a different approach to the study of IR. The presented case study of China’s foreign policy toward the Middle East takes into account context specific, relational elements in order to obtain valuable insights. By applying a framework consisting of Confucian teachings on governance, order, and relationship, this thesis demonstrates an interpretation of Chinese foreign policy that has been disregarded by mainstream Western IR scholarship until now.

China

foreign policy

Confucianism

rising power

Middle East

Author

Hu, Nian Dong

Note

First evaluator: Dr. Jue Wang; Second evaluator: Dr. Mohammadbagher Forough

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

East Asia

Supervisors

Wang, Jue

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en