Inherently particularistic?

In this journal article, DIIS researcher Andreas Bøje Forsby examines the discursive building blocks of China’s national identity, arguing that their inherently particularistic, or Sino-centric, character significantly constrains China’s ability to wield soft power on the international stage.

After theorizing the link between national identity construction and soft power promotion, Forsby identifies four specific discursive building blocks that have been critical to the narrative articulation of China’s national identity in the first two decades of the 21^st century: “Sino-civilization”, “Confucianism”, the “Century of Humiliation” and the “Communist March”. Drawing on a number of key speeches by Xi Jinping, Forsby identifies these building blocks in China’s official discourse and shows how they enable and constrain the narrative construction of China’s national identity.

Against this backdrop, the article discusses how China’s inability to wield soft power is fundamentally shaped by the particularistic character of its national identity – in addition to the illiberal nature of China’s political regime and the shortcomings of its civil society as other scholars have pointed out. Specifically, it is argued that each of the four main discursive building blocks of Chinese identity are rooted in historically entrenched Sino-centric conceptions of national identity.

Hence, without a set of underlying universalistic ideas, norms and principles that transcend China’s own historical, cultural and political contexts, Chinese identity narratives are less likely to appear attractive to the outside world, making it harder for the Chinese government to capitalise on its massive soft power investments in recent years.