Hegemony with Chinese Characteristics: From the Tributary System to the Belt and Road Initiative

Hegemony with Chinese Characteristics compares the historical relationship of China with its neighbours to the developing trajectory of the Belt and Road Initiative, and asks what this tells us about the kind of hegemon China is likely to become.

China is going to play a more active and decisive role in the international community and there is much uncertainty about how China will handle its responsibilities and interests. The ambiguous and assertive Belt and Road Initiative is a matter of special concern in this aspect. The Tributary System, which provides concrete evidence of how Chinese dynasties handled relations with foreigners, is a useful reference point in trying to understand its twenty-first century developments. This is particularly true, because after the turbulence of the Century of Humiliation and the Maoist Era, China seems to be explicitly re-embracing its history and its pre-revolutionary identity. Confucius, one of the biggest targets of the Cultural Revolution, is being rehabilitated alongside Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and other ideologies and philosophies suppressed in the Mao era. Dogan analyzes the extent to which China’s current approach to foreign relations resembles its earlier models.

Grounded in hegemony as an analytic lens, this book provides an innovative study of the power generated by the global rise in China. It will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of Chinese foreign policy and international relations and serve as a benchmark for further studies.