Creating the China Dream: Changes in Chinese Political Modernity and Foreign Policy
Abstract
The paper deals with how the slogan “China Dream” of Xi Jinping and the
subsequent development of the slogan impact on China’s (foreign) policy
and modern political project. To do so, it builds upon a pragmatic theory of
social change supplemented with the literature on multiple modernities.
What is analyzed in it is how the politics of the China Dream leads to new
crucial projects like the One Belt One Road initiative and other, more
specific ones. The paper shows that the China Dream unfolds from a
combination of moral and strategic reasons to mutual connections between
old and new ideas, concepts and projects. Thus, the politics of the China
Dream is not based on rethinking the theory and practice of (foreign) policy
de novo, but rather on creative connections between old and new elements.
Keywords
Chinese foreign policy, Xi Jinping, China Dream, One Belt One Road, political modernity, identity
Author Biography
Aleš Karmazin
Aleš Karmazin, born in 1987, he is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Political Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. He received his M.Sc.
(Econ.) in International Relations from Aberystwyth University, and his M.Sc.
in China in Comparative Perspective from the London School of Economics,
where he was awarded the Fei Xiaotong Prize for the best M.Sc. dissertation
in the respective programme. He was also a visiting research fellow at
Peking University. His research interests include constructivist and critical
theoretical approaches in IR, the domestic and foreign policy of China and
India, international relations in East Asia, the issue of international order
and state sovereignty. His Ph.D. thesis focuses on construction and
organization of sovereign states in China and India.