‘Community of Common Destiny’ as Post-Western Regionalism: Rethinking China’s Belt and Road Initiative from a Confucian Perspective

Year 2021, Volume: 18 Issue: 70, 85 - 101, 13.08.2021

Raoul BUNSKOEK Chih-yu SHIH

https://doi.org/10.33458/uidergisi.954744

Cited By: 2

Abstract

Conventional explanations of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) focus on how the BRI will be in China’s
interest, how it will strengthen China’s geopolitical position, or a combination of the two. We argue that such
views are limited because they merely interpret the BRI through ‘Western’ IR lenses. This paper ‘re-worlds’
China by using the BRI as a case study to illustrate how in the discursive field(s) of China’s elite, China as
a Westphalian nation state, and China as amorphous Tianxia under Confucianism coexist, struggle for
recognition, and are interrelated. Consequently, we argue that China, because of the economic miracle it created
domestically over the last few decades, is now convinced of its own ‘moral superiority’, and ready to export
its self-perceived ‘benevolence’ abroad. In this light, we read the BRI to be undergirded by a combination of
‘Western’ and Confucian values, suggesting a post-Western/post-Chinese form of regionalism.

Keywords

Belt and Road, Post-Western, Regionalism, Tianxia, Confucianism

Batı Sonrası Bölgeselcilik olarak ‘Ortak Yazgı Topluluğu’: Çin’in Kuşak-Yol İnisiyatifini Konfüçyüsçü Bir Perspektiften Yeniden Düşünmek

Abstract

Çin’in Kuşak-Yol İnisiyatifine (KYİ) dair geleneksel açıklamalar, KYİ’nin Çin’in çıkarlarına nasıl hizmet
edeceğine, Çin’in jeopolitik konumunu nasıl güçlendireceğine veya bu ikisine birden odaklanmaktadır. Bu
tür görüşlerin KYİ’yi yalnızca “Batılı” uluslararası ilişkiler merceğinden yorumlamaları nedeniyle sınırlı
olduklarını ileri sürüyoruz. Bu makale, Çinli seçkinlerin söylemsel alan(lar)ında Çin’in Vestfalyen bir ulus
devlet ve Konfüçyanizm altında biçimsiz Tianxia olarak nasıl aynı anda var olduğunu, kabul görmek için nasıl
mücadele ettiğini ve bunların nasıl birbirleriyle ilişkili olduklarını açıklamak için KYİ’yi bir örnek olay olarak
kullanarak Çin’i küresel bütüne yeniden yerleştirmektedir. Sonuç olarak, ülke içerisinde son birkaç on yılda
yarattığı ekonomik mucize sebebiyle şu anda Çin’in kendi ‘ahlaki üstünlüğünden’ emin ve öz-algısına dayanan
‘hayırseverliği’ yurt dışına ihraç etmeye hazır durumda olduğunu öne sürüyoruz. Bu bakımdan KYİ’nin, Batısonrası/Çin-sonrası bir bölgeselcilik biçimi öneren, ‘Batılı’ ve Konfüçyüsçü değerlerin bir birleşiminden destek
bulan bir okumasını yapıyoruz.

Keywords

Kuşak-Yol, Batı Sonrası, Bölgeselcilik, Tianxia, Konfüçyanizm

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