China’s current foreign policy rhetoric emphasizes the desire to build a world shared by all where peace, cooperation and common prosperity reign. This message has been falling on deaf ears in the Western world where China is perceived an ideational rival or an outright adversary, but with the Unites States’ declining soft power during the second Trump presidency, many countries have started to re-warm their bilateral relations with China.
A prominent international relations theorist, Yan Xuetong, presents “moral realism” as the best way for China to grow its prestige and goodwill. The idea builds on the classic of statecraft Xunzi, which stresses righteousness and justness as the most effective ways of winning the hearts of people across borders. At the same time, it recognizes the practical value of realpolitik-based actions.
This seminar calls for an examination of the extent in which China’s alleged reliance on traditional values for moral leadership is just an external disguise for relying on the toolkit for hegemony in reality. Senior Research Fellow Jyrki Kallio will present his new Briefing Paper discussing these themes. Last year, he has also published a Finnish-language translation of the Chinese statecraft classic Xunzi.
Programme:
Speaker
Jyrki Kallio, Senior Research Fellow, FIIA
Moderator
Elina Sinkkonen, Senior Research Fellow, FIIA
