EVENTS

Abstract

The concept of peace has been invoked in China’s contemporary strategic discourse by its leadership very specifically since the 1950’s and more recently, since 2000. From the “Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence” in 1954, to the “independent foreign policy of peace” in early 1980s, the Chinese leadership moved to a "path of peaceful development". The fourth generation Chinese presented a shift in the country’s strategic discourse by positing ‘harmony’ as implied peace. Since the turn of the last century, the official proclamations of the government of PRC such as “Pan-Asian identity”, “positive-sum view” of the East Asian region, “good neighborhood policy” have been presented as sustained contributions to “the construction of a harmonious world.” Moreover, the notion of harmony as peace constantly jostles with ‘stability’ in strategic discourse and therefore much like the developed capitalist bloc, the idea of ‘peace through deterrence’ finds regular appearance. The resultant net peace in Chinese strategic discourse presents much ambiguity with regards to its nature and implications. This paper is an attempt to address these ambiguities by exploring the historical arrival of the concept of harmony, stability and peace. The paper applies the concept of reification to understand the said arrival and thereafter the nature of peace. 

About the Speaker

Dr. Rityusha Mani Tiwary is an Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi. She is the Assistant Editor of China Report: A Journal of East Asian Studies (Institute of Chinese Studies) since 2016. She has a PhD from Chinese Studies Division, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She was a recipient of Junior and Senior Research Fellowship by the University Grant Commission of India (2009-2014) and Indian Council of Social Sciences Research International Grant (2014). She received the Young Sinologist Award by the Ministry of Culture, Peoples’ Republic of China in 2017 and held International Visitor’s Leadership Program Fellowship given by the Department of State, USA in 2016. She has held Visiting Fellowships at the Politics and International Studies Department at the University of Cambridge (2013), Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences at Shanghai, China (2012), Centre for Policy Analysis, Delhi (2011-12) and German Institute of Global and Area Studies at Hamburg, Germany (2009). She has a keen interest in the foreign policy discourse and international relations in East Asia. Her areas of research include Regionalism in East Asia and foreign policies of India and China. Her doctoral work China and East Asian Regionalism: Origins and Dimensions of an Emerging Leadership, 1997-2009 and a monograph A Comparative Study of Power and Leadership Discourse in South Asia and East Asia are forthcoming. She regularly writes for media publications on foreign policy issues. Some of her latest contributions on Indian Politics & Foreign Policy of China can be found in: Political Processes and Institutions in India (Orient BlackSwan, 2018) and Contemporary Indian Politics (Sage, 2018), Politics: Essays in Tribute to Randhir Singh, (Aakar Books: New Delhi, 2018) China’s Foreign Policy: Global Perspectives, (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Beijing, People ’s Republic of China, 2018).