Towards National Rejuvenation and Chinese inherent Peacefulness: A case study of Great Power Diplomacy

China’s national identity plays a crucial role in the research of Chinese nationalism security and historical memory making. Identity politics played an increasingly important role in China, especially after the reform and opening up of the Chinese economy initiated by Deng Xiaoping and the 1989 Tiananmen crisis. The CCP’s moral and ideological legitimacy was increasingly challenged. Deng and Jiang Zemin turned to patriotic education and Confucianism for the solution, citing the lack of patriotic feelings among citizen as the cause for the Tiananmen crisis (Gilley 1998, 271-2). The selective and “active forgetting” nature of writing history is also present in the construction of national identity and political discourse which are dependent on elites and their political aims (Renwick & Qing 1999, 112). Under Xi’s rule, the national identity discourse has taken a shift in narratives, where nationalism humiliation faded slowly into the background and gradually replaced by more...Show moreChina’s national identity plays a crucial role in the research of Chinese nationalism security and historical memory making. Identity politics played an increasingly important role in China, especially after the reform and opening up of the Chinese economy initiated by Deng Xiaoping and the 1989 Tiananmen crisis. The CCP’s moral and ideological legitimacy was increasingly challenged. Deng and Jiang Zemin turned to patriotic education and Confucianism for the solution, citing the lack of patriotic feelings among citizen as the cause for the Tiananmen crisis (Gilley 1998, 271-2). The selective and “active forgetting” nature of writing history is also present in the construction of national identity and political discourse which are dependent on elites and their political aims (Renwick & Qing 1999, 112). Under Xi’s rule, the national identity discourse has taken a shift in narratives, where nationalism humiliation faded slowly into the background and gradually replaced by more ambitious and victorious narratives (Chang 2021). The motivation behind this shift can be shortly summarise as CCP’s historical goals of “great rejuvenation of the nation” which Xi explicitly expressed since his succession. The construction of national identity involves selecting specific historical events as strong evidence for themes, even though it might ignore or exclude the complete picture, especially in China, where the historical discourse is highly politicalised (Zhao 2015). Therefore, this paper is interested in “How does China constructs its national identity discourse around the themes of ‘The China Dream’ and ‘Chinese inherent peacefulness’”? The documentary Great Power Diplomacy will be used as a case study in answering this 2 question. It is argued that the CCP has carefully constructed a framework in integrating themes of “China Dream” and “Chinese inherent peacefulness” into the Chinese national discourse through propaganda, while the constructed discourse also serves as a useful tool in deflecting criticism.Show less

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Towards National Rejuvenation and Chinese inherent Peacefulness: A case study of Great Power Diplomacy