The Chinese strategic culture : understanding the Chinese attitude towards security and use of force for strategic ends.

• Main Author: Teo, Derek Kay Leng.
• Other Authors: Li Ming Jiang
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/55190
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The purpose of this research seeks to construct the ideational model of Chinese strategic culture via the analysis of Chinese idioms. This model of Chinese strategic culture offers an insight of the Chinese attitude towards security and how Chinese regimes will use force to achieve political ends. This model of strategic culture is then applied to explain the stability of China-US-Taiwan relations in spite of the fact that China had grown materially more powerful. This study intends to identify the ideational sources that influenced Chinese strategic thinking. A total of 18,000 Chinese idioms (f£ift) were examined to determine the historical periods and literature that shaped Chinese cognition, and what are the commonly accepted norms for security, strategy and the use of force. The findings of this study indicated that the Chinese practiced a culture of pragmatism that is shaped by its own history, especially that of the pre-Oin (5t~) and Han (&) eras, as well as philosophy from the Confucian (11~), Legalist (r!~), Daoist (Ja~), Military (~~), Eclectic (~~~) and Mohist (~~) schools. Chinese regimes that rule China is likely to use all means at its disposal to achieve the best outcome with the 'least cost. Given that wars are costly, the Chinese regimes prefer not to use force to achieve a strategic outcome. However if core interests are at stake, the use of force will not be ruled out. The Chinese prefer to seek mutually beneficial co-existence in an inter-dependent relationship, as it believes in prospering under an orderly, benign and stable strategic environment. This thesis hopes to further the understanding of Chinese strategic culture, that history plays a significant part in how the Chinese make sense of the present strategic situation and that the Chinese strategic thinking is not solely shaped by Confucius and Sun Zi.