China's Struggle for Status: The Realignment of International Relations (review)

[ 174 ] asia policy China’s Struggle for Status: The Realignment of International Relations Yong Deng New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008 • 312 pp. author’s executive summary This book provides an original and comprehensive account of China’s remarkable rise from the periphery to the center stage of post–Cold War world politics. main argument Chinese foreign relations since the Cold War have been a process whereby the once beleaguered country has adapted to, and proactively realigned, its international environment. In so doing, the ruling Communist Party has striven to simultaneously manage China’s domestic and international transitions while balancing nationalism with globalization, power with recognition, and change with compliance within the globalized world. This duality is evident in Beijing’s policies regarding such key issues as international hierarchy and Taiwan. Moreover, developments in world politics, though not always of China’s making, have overall aligned well with Beijing’s policy adjustments. policy implications • Chineseforeignpolicydoesnotneatlyfitanyofthemainstreaminternational relations theories. Thus, when devising a China policy, the U.S. needs to creatively address the Chinese desire for recognition, change, and power. • Given that status recognition is such a potent force driving Chinese action abroad, the U.S., while being tough, should eschew characterizing disagreements with China in terms of “us versus them” strategic hostility. • The Sino-U.S. relationship does not exist in isolation but should be considered by Washington in a broad rethinking of how to renew U.S. global leadership. As an up-and-coming power, China is more likely to become the “responsible stakeholder” that the U.S. wants it to become if the constraints on wayward behavior and zero-sum power competition are firmly embedded in a world continually defined by openness, globalization, and shared governance. [ 175 ] book reviews The End of Chinese Realpolitik? Yuan-Kang Wang A review of Deng’s China’s Struggle for Status China specialists have noted the realpolitik penchant of Chinese foreign policy. “China may well be the high church of realpolitik in the postCold War world,” wrote one eminent Sinologist in the mid-1990s.1 According to this view, the pursuit of power has dominated the foreign policy agenda of China since the PRC’s inception. At the turn of the 21st century, however, Chinese foreign policy appears to have forgone the antagonistic rhetoric of the past and instead embraced the virtue of cooperation and mutual gains. Beijing publicly proclaims that China would like to develop peacefully and become a “responsible great power” on the world stage. As a result of Beijing’s diplomatic finesse, perceptions of China as a kinder, gentler nation seem to be on the rise. Does China’s new diplomacy mark a significant departure from the power politics of the past? In China’s Struggle for Status, Yong Deng argues that the term “power politics” no longer captures the essence of Beijing’s foreign policy. According to him, “the predominant pattern of China’s foreign policy simply cannot be adequately explained by the balance-of-power proposition, nor have foreign powers reacted to China’s rise in the way posited by various brands of realist theory” (p. 275). Realism aside, liberal and constructivist theories also have their shortcomings when applied to China, albeit to a lesser extent. Drawing on insights from relevant international relations (IR) theories as well as from sociology and social psychology, Deng argues that Chinese foreign policy is best understood as a struggle for status and recognition rather than as a struggle for power: “The PRC may well be the most status-conscious country in the world,” he observes (p. 8). As a nation with a glorious past, China is particularly sensitive to how the country is perceived by the outside world. Chinese elites frequently attribute their country’s foreign policy quandary to the mistrust and misunderstanding of foreigners. The PRC longs to be accepted and recognized as a great power in the international community. 1 Thomas J. Christensen, “Chinese Realpolitik,” Foreign Affairs 75, no. 5 (September–October 1996): 37. See also Andrew J. Nathan and Robert S. Ross, The Great Wall and the Empty Fortress: China’s Search for Security (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997), 4; and Avery Goldstein, Rising to the Challenge: China...