Chinas Selective Identities

This book discusses the role of selective identities in shaping Chinas position in regional and global affairs. It does so by using the concept of the political transition of power, and argues that by taking on different types of identitiesof state, ideology and culturethe Chinese government has adjusted Chinas identity to different kinds of audiences. By adopting different kinds of self, China has secured its relatively peaceful transition within the existing system and, in the meantime, strengthened its capacity to place its principles within that system. To its immediate neighbors, China presents itself as a state that needs clearcut borders. In relation to the developing world (Global South), the PRC narrates self as an ideology with the banner of materialism, equality and justice. To its third audience, the developed world (mainly Europe), China presents itself as a peaceful, innocent cultural construct based primarily onConfucius passive approach. By bringing these three identities into one Chinese body (, sanwei yiti), Chinas policymakers skillfully maneuver and build the countrys position in the arena of global affairs.