Human Security and the Chinese State: Historical Transformations and the Modern Quest for Sovereignty

205 Pages·2007·1.05 MB·English

by  Robert Bedeski

Human Security and the
Chinese State
The modern state is the dominant – but not exclusive – provider of human security.
China has attempted to reconstitute itself as a modern sovereign state on several
occasions in the past century, driven by the quest for security and order. In addition
to the state, family and social institutions have extended human longevity by
reducing violent and preventable deaths. Twenty-two centuries ago the imperial
Confucian state increased human security; its collapse in 1911 led to several
experiments in state-building and adaptation. This groundbreaking book outlines a
working theory of human security, and applies it to an analysis of the dynamics of
the Chinese state. Professor Bedeski demonstrates how sovereignty of the state
reflects primary human concerns of survival, where the state’s fundamental
purpose is to preserve citizens’ lives. Using his theory of human security,
he describes eight “meta-constitutions” from the Legalist Qin empire to the
potential federal state represented by Taiwan’s continued autonomy. The
incompleteness of Chinese sovereignty remains a key variable in understanding
the policy and strategy of modernization, both within China and among
neighboring East Asian states.
His study bridges humanist and social sciences in combining political theory
with historical, literary, cinematic, and sociological materials and ideas. Human
Security and the Chinese State provides an original approach to the last two
thousand years of Chinese political history that will appeal to scholars of Chinese
politics, history, human security, and political theory.
Robert E. Bedeski is Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, and
Program Professor Emeritus, Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives (CAPI) at the
University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Routledge contemporary China series
1 Nationalism, Democracy and 7 Globalization and the Chinese
National Integration in China City
Leong Liew and Wang Fulong Wu
Shaoguang
8 The Politics of China’s
2 Hong Kong’s Tortuous Accession to the World Trade
Democratization Organization
A comparative analysis The dragon goes global
Ming Sing Hui Feng
3 China’s Business Reforms 9 Narrating China
Institutional challenges in a Jia Pingwa and his fictional world
globalised economy Yiyan Wang
Edited by Russell Smyth and
Cherrie Zhu 10 Sex, Science and Morality in
China
4 Challenges for China’s Joanne McMillan
Development
An enterprise perspective 11 Politics in China Since 1949
Edited by David H. Brown and Legitimizing authoritarian rule
Alasdair MacBean Robert Weatherley
5 New Crime in China 12 International Human Resource
Public order and Management in Chinese
human rights Multinationals
Ron Keith and Zhiqiu Lin Jie Shen and Vincent Edwards
6 Non-Governmental 13 Unemployment in China
Organizations in Economy, human resources and
Contemporary China labour markets
Paving the way to civil society? Edited by Grace Lee and
Qiusha Ma Malcolm Warner
14 China and Africa 16 SARS
Engagement and Reception and interpretation in
compromise three Chinese cities
Ian Taylor Edited by Deborah Davis and
Helen Siu
15 Gender and Education in
China 17 Human Security and the
Gender discourses and women’s Chinese State
schooling in the early twentieth Historical transformations and the
century modern quest for sovereignty
Paul J. Bailey Robert E. Bedeski
Human Security and the
Chinese State
Historical transformations and the
modern quest for sovereignty
Robert E. Bedeski
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2007 Robert E. Bedeski
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bedeski, Robert E.
Human security and the Chinese state : historical transformations
and the modern quest for sovereignty / by Robert E. Bedeski.
p. cm. – (Routledge contemporary China series ; 17)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. China – Politics and government. 2. Social contract. 3. Security
(Psychology) – Political aspects – China. 4. State, The. 5. Sovereignty.
I. Title.
JQ1510.B43 2007
320.1'50951–dc22 2006024055
ISBN 0-203-96475-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–41255–2 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–96475–6 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–41255–1 (hbk)
ISNB13: 978–0–203–96475–0 (ebk)
For dolce Pamela
Contents
Preface x
List of abbreviations xiii
1 Human survival, human institutions, and
human security 1
2 Dimensions of human security: foundations
in individual human life 4
3 The modern sovereign nation-state (MSNS) 24
4 Prologue to a theory of human security 44
5 A notational theory of human security 62
6 Actualizing imperial sovereignty in ancient China 77
7 Claiming dynastic sovereignty under the
imperial meta-constitution 103
8 Sovereignty and state-building in late Qing
and Republican China 130
9 Contemporary China’s incomplete sovereignty:
fusion, succession, and adaptation 155
Notes 173
Bibliography 178
Index 187