Table Of ContentTHE EMPIRE’S NEW CLOTHES
THE EMPIRE’S NEW CLOTHES
CULTURALPARTICULARISMANDUNIVERSALVALUEIN
CHINA’SQUESTFORGLOBALSTATUS
Jeremy T. Paltiel
THEEMPIRE’SNEWCLOTHES
Copyright © Jeremy T. Paltiel, 2007.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-1-4039-6198-3
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brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2007 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-52673-4 ISBN 978-0-230-60512-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230605121
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Paltiel, Jeremy T.
The empire's new clothes : cultural particularism and universal value
in China's quest for global status / By Jeremy Paltiel.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. China--Foreign relations--1976- 2. Political culture--China. 3.
Sovereignty--Case studies. I. Title.
JZ1734.P35 2007
320.1'50951--dc22 2006033722
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: June 2007
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the memory of my parents, Dr. Khayyam Zev Paltiel
z’’l and Freda L. Paltiel z’’l, both of whom yearned to see this project com-
pleted and deserved to live long enough for it to see the light. Their encour-
agement, and that of many unnamed others, was my inspiration. I hope this
book stands as a fitting monument to their persistence.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix
Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi
Introduction: Identifying China in International Relations . . . . . .1
1 The Ins and Outs of Sovereignty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
2 Sovereignty in the Discourse of the Communist
Party of China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
3 National Rights, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law . . . . . .89
4 Human Rights and Membership in International Society . . .139
5 China and the World Trading System: The WTO
and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163
6 Taiwan and the Concept of Territorial Sovereignty . . . . . . . .191
7 Conclusion: China and International Society . . . . . . . . . . . .213
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .311
Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .315
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to acknowledge the support of the Social Science
and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which awarded me a
three-year standard research grant in 2002. I would also like to thank
my copy editors, Mary Liston and Tanya Casperson, as well as my
research assistant, Wayne Zhu. Along the way I have also benefited
deeply from intense discussions with my friend and colleague Oded
Lowenheim, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I should also
point out the long-time encouragement of Dr. Bernie Frolic of York
University; he has followed and supported my career since he first
shepherded me across the Lowu Bridge into the People’s Republic of
China from Hong Kong in 1974.
FIGURES
Figure 1 National Strength Arrayed against
International Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Figure 2 Citations in Chinese Legal Science
(Zhongguo Faxue) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Figure 3 Citations in Chinese Legal Studies (Faxue Yanjiu) . . . .122
INTRODUCTION:
IDENTIFYING CHINA IN
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
The most important thing in social life is how actors represent Self
and Other. … Society, in short, is “what people make of it.”1
Although China cannot be said to be fully cooperative in every issue
of international relations, it has pursued a more accommodative,
although occasionally erratic posture over the last 150 years.
Indeed the general pattern and direction of China’s international
behavior, albeit more in the global political economy than in global
high politics, has been a slow but steady movement from conflict to
cooperation. And China is more cooperative in high-profile multi-
lateral institutional or negotiating settings than in low profile bilat-
eral negotiations.2
THEPRICEOFRESTOREDGREATNESS
I
n this book I address both “fit” and “fashion”—hence the title. I
focus on how China has had to restyle itself to gain recognition from
an external audience that was once peripheral but is now the arbiter of
fashion. A China used to turning heads before a select audience, largely
of its own choosing, now seeks to turn heads far and wide. It aspires
to be the fashion capital of the world and has successfully incorporated
its own traditions into its designs while producing the finest cutters,
seamstresses, and materials in the world. But it alone cannot decide
what the “Spring Look” should be. To ensure the return of buyers, it
2 The Empire’s New Clothes / Jeremy T. Paltiel
has to keep its styles familiar. And even though the buyers are
intrigued, they still flock to the runways of Paris and New York.
I address this book to multiple audiences. I direct it first toward
those who want to know more about China’s relationship with the
world and who are concerned about the impact China will have on
international society. I also write for scholars of international relations
who are engaged in the debate concerning the “social construction”
of the international system. Finally, I offer a case study of the politics
of socialization. China has entered the world system both objectively
and subjectively from the outside. Prior to the Opium Wars of the nine-
teenth century, China did not engage in regular international rela-
tions with the states of Europe, nor did it perceive itself to be
embedded in a system of like political units. How China was forcibly
brought into this system is relatively well known. How the manner of
China’s entry into the world system continues to color its foreign pol-
icy is less well studied.
The outcome of this process, the effect of Chinese perceptions on
the evolution of the international system, is an emergent subject. Stu-
dents of Chinese politics in particular, and of comparative politics in
general, are interested in how China’s interaction with international
society affects the evolution of its domestic institutions, norms, and
values. The cultural confrontation between China and the West precip-
itated a succession of new institutions and values that centered on sov-
ereignty and focused on bringing China back into the mainstream of
world history. Participation in a new global narrative entailed the inte-
gration of sovereignty into the identity of China. Sovereignty crystal-
lizes a lens through which a narrative reconstruction of the Chinese
“self” is projected on an international “other.”
SOVEREIGNTY: THERELATIONALNEXUSOF
IDENTITYANDTHECHINESECULTURE
This book is about the relationship of sovereignty to identity and how
identity informs the reception of external norms. Scholars and practi-
tioners agree that sovereignty forms one of the basic qualities of mod-
ern statehood. Modern international relations theory and the entire
corpus of international law, especially public international law, are built
around the collectivity of sovereign states that is organized as a sort of
“international society.” Controversy arises over the quality of the rela-
tionship between individual states and the structure of “international
