RSS

Since the mid-80s, Chinese state officials have supported the re-evaluation of Confucianism to provide the Chinese population with a distinctive national identity that is opposed it to the Western system of values and customs. The question is, for what purposes has Chinese national identity been constructed along this way? How and why have these opposing identities between China and the West been asserted?

This essay will argue that Chinese political identity has been rooted in the cultural heritage and history of the mainland in coping with the crises of the socialist identity and regime's legitimacy following the implementation of the economic reforms in the Post-Mao era. Ever since the Marxist-Leninist ideology had been set aside, the national identity, defined exclusively in socialist terms was fractured. And the Communist regime, losing progressively its ideological pillar, faced problems of justification.

These domestic problems were worsened by the external influences that inundated China during the modernization process. In particular the flow of "dangerous" images and ideas from the West, such as the democratization of former socialist countries in Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War may threaten the Chinese socialist identity. Communist leaders have tried to justify the maintenance of the one-party rule on the basis of the specific historical and cultural conditions of the continent, the so called "special Chinese characteristics."

Thus, maintaining the opposition between China and the West is an essential step to justify the conservation of the Communist regime. State officials have underlined that China has a distinctive national identity that is "spiritually different" from the West (Ong 1997). Democracy and liberalism are considered as Western ideologies and thereby deemed incompatible with Chinese national characteristics (Callahan 2006b:186.)

Hence the revival of Confucian ideology can be comprehended as a way to provide the people of China with a sort of national identity that would serve as a bulwark against the ideological impacts from the West following rapid economic development (Meissner 1999). Chinese policy-makers, in a "self-orientalizing" discourse, have challenged the ideology of eurocentric modernity (Western liberalism.) By claiming a specific Chinese model of political and social organization. the Chinese Authority developed a different form of capitalism hinged on Confucian principles (Dirlik 1993, Dirlik and Zhang 2000). In this way, Chinese leaders invoke a peculiar Chinese modernity, rejecting the natural and global evolution to liberal democracy envisaged by Fukuyama (Fukuyama 1989.)

Filippo Mauri holds a MA with distinction from the International Studies and Diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies.