Domestic Enemies, National Identity Mobilization, and China's Attitudes toward Foreign Others

FAIN: FT-264843-19

Yinan He, PhD
Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA 18015-3027)

Writing a book about Chinese approaches to the “foreign other” in domestic and foreign policy in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

To stoke fear and hatred of foreigners for internal needs is a recurring pattern in modern Chinese nationalism. Anchored in interpretive analysis of elites’ political rhetoric, party documents, and propaganda materials, the book is a macro-historical study of Chinese national identity discourse from the 1890s till the 2010s. Rather than being constantly antagonistic toward foreign imperialism, China has undergone cycles of seeking cooperation with foreigners and demonizing them. When facing severe political challenges, Chinese elites often tried to exclude domestic enemies in national identity mobilization. However, if targeting domestic others alone was politically inconvenient or unappealing, they would promote antiforeign identity to reinforce internal battles. By linking China’s domestic politics with attitudes toward perceived foreign adversaries, this study revises dominant views that emphasize historical grievances or external threat in explaining modern China’s antiforeignism.

Associated Products

Research Findings on Chinese National Identity Discourse since the Modern times (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Research Findings on Chinese National Identity Discourse since the Modern times
Author: Yinan He
Abstract: I will be presenting from the book manuscript to highlight the implications of China’s attitude to Western countries in the past century for its foreign relations today.
Date: 12/06/2019
Conference Name: "Getting China Right: China in the World" conference, Duke University

Mao’s Two-Front War: Anti-Soviet Polemics and the Domestic Battle against Revisionism, 1959-1969 (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Mao’s Two-Front War: Anti-Soviet Polemics and the Domestic Battle against Revisionism, 1959-1969
Author: Yinan He
Abstract: To stoke fears and hatred of foreign nations to serve internal needs is a recurring pattern in modern Chinese national identity discourse. Drawing upon a vast collection of Chinese leaders’ political rhetoric and memoirs, party documents, and propaganda materials, as well as secondary literature, this paper investigates Mao Zendong’s manipulation of anti-Soviet discourse between 1959-1969 to discredit domestic opponents and push through radical economic and political adventures. In summer 1959, facing sharp criticisms of the Great Leap Forward modeled on Revolutionary Stalinism, Mao at the Lushan Conference purged party dissidents like Peng Dehuai as “right-ward opportunists” with “illicit ties” to Moscow that also disapproved Mao’s policies. Thereafter, Beijing brought Sino-Soviet ideological conflict into the open. By refuting Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization and condemning his “revisionist” deviations from orthodox socialism, Mao silenced domestic opposition while relaunching the Leap. As the intra-party rift widened following the Leap's fiasco, Mao escalated anti-Soviet polemics and further intertwined it with internal campaigns bashing Soviet-style revisionism. This two-front war culminated in the Cultural Revolution, when “capitalist roaders in power” like Liu Shaoqi and just anyone who disagreed with Mao in and outside his own party were accused of being revisionists or even “China’s Khrushchev.” At the same time, in order to justify and reinforce the great revolution at home, the Maoist faction kept the tension level with Moscow high, to the point of disrupting a normal diplomatic relationship and eventually sliding to the brink of war.
Date: 03/19/2020
Conference Name: annual meeting of the Association of Asian Studies

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