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“Same Bed, Different Dreams” and “Riding Tiger” Dilemmas: China’s Rise and International Relations/Political Economy

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China is projected to overtake the US as the largest economy by 2017in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms & by 2027 in market exchange rate terms. (PwC 2013: 1)

Xi Jinping, the “Chinese dream’ and a return to greatness: let’s party like it’s 1793” (The Economist, 2013)

Abstract

This paper seeks to present a framework for understanding the impact of China’s rise on the established international order with a special focus on the contradictions and dilemmas facing both China and the order around it. It suggests heuristic insights from two Chinese cultural and linguistic metaphysics in order to denote the dynamic and interactive relationship between the rise of China and the existing order in terms of both opportunities and challenges. The authors argue that both China and the existing order have been going through periods of “sleeping in the same bed with different dreams”, and now they are in the stage of “riding tiger” in which both sides face dilemmas in their complicated and complex relationship. The paper concludes that the rise of China and the existing order will continue to be intertwined in a dialectic of waxing and waning, and flux and reflux. In order for each to find a regional and global role which the other will accept and support both sides will have to go through a considerable period of struggle, tension and adjustment.

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Notes

  1. The notion of “Chinese nationalism” is an unclear and undefined one. In the contemporary era, the notion actually refers more to “patriotism” rather than “nationalism”. According to Lucian Pye [50], the concept of “Chinese nationalism” is a “relatively contentless form of nationalism.”

  2. The notion that China is a “civilization” rather than a “nation state” was first raised and explained by Lucian Pye [49].

  3. The notion of “century of humiliation” refers to the period between the first Sino-British Opium War (1839) and the end of the Chinese Civil War (1949), during which the political incursion, economic exploitation, and military aggression by western imperialist countries are firmly perceived as the key factor that undermined the historical glory of the Chinese civilization and humiliated the Chinese nation.

  4. The notion of “victim mentality” is connected with China’s painful experience of the “century of humiliation” (note 3). It has affected the Chinese consciousness in its relations with the Western world since the founding the People’s Republic in 1949. Despite the passage of time, the scars of memory remain and have in many ways shaped China’s foreign policy and international relations.

  5. Available at http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2010-04/27/content_9778666.htm

  6. He is the Head of Research for Oxfam GB and author of From Poverty to Power. More information on Duncan and the book is available on the official website: http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=2737

  7. It is necessary to notice the fact that the data was influenced by the positive effect of China’s hosting the Olympic Game in 2008.

  8. “Tian Xia” refers to “heavenly order”, a Chinese ancient imperial concept of order and governance. This order represents a hierarchical system that emphasizes values, ethics and elite governance. For further understanding, see Callahan [2].

  9. A Chinese proverb goes, “one mountain cannot be shared by two tigers”, which implies that two equal powers cannot live together peacefully and they will have to fight until one of them prevails.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center on Development and International Relations, Department of Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Xing Li

  2. University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA

    Timothy M. Shaw

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Li, X., Shaw, T.M. “Same Bed, Different Dreams” and “Riding Tiger” Dilemmas: China’s Rise and International Relations/Political Economy. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI 19, 69–93 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-013-9276-9

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