"The Peaceful Rise" of China: the problem of image and perception in 2000-2019

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FEDERAL STATE AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

FOR HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Faculty of the World Economy and International Affairs

"The Peaceful Rise" of China: the problem of image and perception in 2000-2019

BACHELOR'S THESIS

in the Field of Study 41.03.05 “International Relations”

Bachelor's Programme “HSE and University of London Parallel Degree Programme in International Relations”

Fatima Farakhdust

Academic supervisor

Faculty of the World Economy

and International Affairs

Senior Lecturer

Andrei Skriba

Moscow, 2020

Abstract

The phenomenon of China's Peaceful Rise has been attracting more and more attention, as the state has started to appear next possible world leader, this time both economic and political, however, whether China is going to craft the contemporary multipolar world into a unipolar one is yet to be discovered. What is the most striking about the issue, is how the process keeps evoking extremely opposite perceptions from other regional and nonregional influential actors. On the one hand, present-day China restores its lost Middle Kingdom's historical heritage, while on the other, drives an evident balancing strategy on behalf of some other global players. Therefore, with the means of various qualitative methods the paper examines, whether the “China-threat” concept is fueled by China's own non-peaceful means to obtain its lost glory, or it is just the matter of an emerging powerful competitor threatening the reputation of the existing masters of the poles, which adds a more aggressive shade to the rise process.

Table of Contents

chinese foreign policy

Introduction

Literature review

Methodological overview

Chapter 1. The rise to development

1.1 Beijing Consensus

1.2 Participation in international organizations

Chapter 2. Overview of Chinese foreign policy

2.1 Origins of great power status and strategy

2.2 Eastphalian peace

2.3 Policies toward regional neighbors: case studies

2.3.1 China-India relations

2.3.2 Cooperation with ASEAN

2.4 Outside region politics: case of Africa

Chapter 3. Structural realism as constraint on perception

3.1 China's national vision

3.2 Side view on behalf of the Others

3.2.1 US and Japan: hostility driven relations

3.2.2 Russia, EU - pragmatic cooperation

Findings and future implications

Conclusion

Reference list

Introduction

The phenomenon of Chinese progress and evolution has been the matter of multiple debate attributed to variety of factors, representing the exceptional case for examining the pattern of development of a catch-up economy who's recipe for the progress had been rising curiosity from all over the world. Indeed, contemporary China represents a source for studying of what the state that managed to outperform draws its efficiency from. Based on the previously carried out research on the economic and political preconditions of the rise and the measures applied in the process of the institutional adjustment, it can be inferred that the successful implementation and performance of liberal reforms dedicated to the enhancement of state comparative advantage had enabled the model of the Beijing consensus to yield China strengthening of its power and authority status. The necessity of the formative rearrangement was acknowledged due to both domestic and international structural conditions. Particularly, as it is represented further in the Chapter 1 of the paper, the Great Leap Forward conducted with the emphasis on the development of the heavy industry has resulted in a short-term positive economic growth, yet the efficiency was temporary, driving various side-effects, including growing unemployment rates, therefore there was a need in the country-specific reforms, accounting for the specificity of the abundant scarce resources.

Simultaneously, the reformation was fueled by the international agenda. Particularly, the origins of the rise course are often attributed to the urgency of repositioning the mainland China as a valuable international player and the only legitimate state of the Han population. Tensions with Taiwan have been still present during the period of our interest, emphasizing the role of the “One China” policy. The relations with Taiwan and Taiwanese interrelations with other actors have determined their interaction with China as well, therefore the point is worth noticing. Besides, gaining international agency has been closely connected to the developmental issues, thus the direction of the restructuration was chosen as well with regard to the prevailing world economic trends of liberalization and globalization, resulting in application of optimal for Chinese economy degree of liberal institutions, enabling it to succeed and represent an alternative interpretation of the Institutional Economics approach, advocated by the West. Beijing consensus has proved that the total rearrangement of the state structure is not necessarily as vital as it may seem, especially as rapid and profound systemic change can be impossible due to certain domestic historical, ideological factors. Thus, rising to the power, China not only regained its status but also became a role model for some of the currently developing states.

The analysis of the path to development is carried out in order to highlight the character of Chinese international behavior during the period when the actual rise has taken place. The examination has shown that up to the beginning of early 2000s China has been focused mainly on the internal challenges and domestic affairs, expressing certain degree of impartiality to the international agenda if it did not interfere directly with Chinese interests. While during 2000-2019 the political course has been gradually adapting to the ongoing situation, making China appear as a more insistent actor, attempting to finally exercise accumulated power to its needs and goals, expanding outside the East Asian region. With this regard, various sentiments and attitudes, studied in the paper, are evoking, the most radical ones being formulated as “China-threat” arguments, whereas China, especially starting with Hu administration, has been publicly endorsing the peaceful origins and intentions of its political actions, oriented towards beneficial cooperation and nonviolence.

Consequently, based on this research puzzle, research question of the paper considers the issue, if current Chinese international policy contradicts the overall course of the peaceful rise adopted in the early 2000s and institutionalized in “China's peaceful rise” program of 2004, or the key difference lies not in the actions themselves, but in the polarized perceptions on behalf of China and other regional and global actors. Therefore, in the study we aim to represent a distinctive analysis of both perspectives of the process based on multiple case studies of China's relations toward regional players and its foreign affairs outside the East Asian region. The novelty of this study is, hence, embodied in the application of various qualitative research methods, as well as degree of economic models application, which are not likely to be represented in the existing literature which focuses primarily on either of the two approaches or considers the rise of China solely the matter of the power transition theory. Contrary, this research attempts to show that the Chinese image construction originates from the strive to regain the former status of the ancient Chinese state that had been experienced during the dynastical medieval times, therefore our hypothesis claims that the rise politics has deep historical underlying factors, specific for the Chinese national mentality, hence the domestic and global perceptions of the phenomenon differ based on varying constructivist and realist approaches, respectively. After losing its authority of the regional, and sometimes even considered then global hegemon, the logic of reappearing on the international arena has been underlining the rise of China ever since 1980s. However, in the beginning the priority lied with the power accumulation, while starting from the 2000s China was finally enabled to act as great power, insisting on its core difference from other rising powers present until now. Specifically, the state persists the strategy of the responsible great power (RGP) showing condescension to other states, especially regional neighbors, and vigorously engages in the construction of a neo-tributary system of expressing international respect and recognition.

The empirical examples of the new political direction can be drawn from China's regional and international projects, especially One Belt One Road Initiative (OBORI) and “Made in China 2025” economic proposal. The first one considers the restoration of the former Silk Road trade route and its modification in accord with the contemporary interregional ties. Since its institutionalization in 2013, the project's ambitions have been stated to include carrying out infrastructural development to create joint economic space for beneficious low-barriers trade relations, financial capital turnover, organization of thinktanks and common pool technology resources, as well as establish regional security arrangement. Claimed as a project aimed to benefit the development and integration of the continental Eurasian and African states, financed majorly by China, the initiative has been often seen both as an alternative to the Marshall Plan and an instrument of projecting Chinese dominance under the framework of economic gains and advantages, fueling the neorealist arguments of labeling China the main threat to economy and stability, as stated by the US Congress (Morrison, 2019; Yu, 2019). As Yu (2019) highlights, OBORI is part of China's grand strategy “Pax-Sinica” connected to other plans on transforming China into the world leading producer and a developed nation-state following from the living standards and GDP per capita indices.

With this regard, the second project remains majorly domestically oriented and focused on industrialization and advancement. Particularly, “Made in China 2025” represents a ten-year strategy on profound renovation of Chinese productive patterns and transforming the state from the mainly field of low-quality cheap production into the equal rival to the developed states. The plan prescribes complete restructuration of the high-tech industry eliminating China's dependence on the import of the foreign technologies and prevention of accuses in violation of the intellectual property rights. Advocated by President Xi, the project tackles the issue of internal development but, importantly, targets China's status of the world factory aiming to replace it with China rather known as the competent technology developer, based on technology-extensive production (Morrison, 2019). It can be seen then that the state policies aim at a complete transformation of China into the self-sufficient independent great power, equal to the other key actors in terms of social well-being, political and economic stability, and level of modernization. However, already having reached certain stage of development and being able to exercise power, China attempts to renovate both itself and the incumbent international order, which involves considerable degree of ideational prerequisites, connected with the image rebuilding, which seem to be frequently neglected by the neorealist perspective and emphasize the need for applying the constructivist scheme.

Hence, in the paper the constructivist approach is used extensively, especially in Chapter 3, to indicate that both initiation of the rise politics and the contemporary emphasis on its peaceful character follow from the historically driven Confucian ideology prescribing the restoration of the ancient hierarchical regionalism and revival of China's great power status. As far as, due to the lasting economic backwardness caused by Western intervention, lost glory and authority as well as frequent abuse of its abundant resources, the image of the grand Middle Kingdom of East Asia that had been maintained for centuries was altered involuntary, following from the independence the Chinese governments have been pursuing the aim of reestablishing the position occupied by China on the international arena. Consequently, the ambitious initiatives and projects are considered to lie within the peaceful rise framework, even though perceived as aggressive by the other actors. The constructivist paradigm is then needed to illustrate the fact that the varying attitudes towards the rise owe to the difference in the national mentality of the Asian and Western states, resorting to different approaches to and visions of the international relations schemes, representing Huntington's clash of civilizations, that have to be analyzed through the means of other factors, including historical background, national values and concepts of power and legitimacy.

Therefore, the research is particularly relevant to the contemporary agenda as the period of interest represents an illustration of the dramatic change in the way China is perceived in the international spectrum and enables future predictions and estimations of its political course with regard to initiatives and cooperation. It is seen then that starting from the early 2000s the policies of China, especially outside the Asian region, have become objectively more assertive and straight-forward, which, as we assume, results, firstly, from its gained ability to influence the international affairs from the perspective of economic and, consequently, political power status and, secondly, from the main motto of the rise politics which is regaining its lost glory. However, regardless of the new degree of assertiveness, the contradictions to the peaceful rise framework are not likely to be present as the main contradiction lies with the difference in perception, which for China has a significant ideational, constructivist component, whereas other great powers take the prevailing neorealist position.

Literature Review

As far as our research is aimed at providing a complex overview of the rise of China and its perception by China and other key global actors, we have analyzed the existing literature material to outline the sides of the ongoing debate and define the existing point of view, comparing it to the alternative that we are presenting. We have divided the core texts and researches in accordance with the Waltzian levels of international relations analysis into the three images, namely the international relations, national state level finishing with the individual one (Waltz, 2001). The international level materials are mainly concerned with the classical realist perspective and the perception of the rise of China through the prism of the balance of power. On the other hand, the second level, image of China focuses on realization of the urgent catch-up with the developed states by the means of reforms to acquire the status of influential international actor, therefore the origins of the peaceful rise politics and its understanding are more complex due to historical background and national mentality, compared to neorealist third image. Lastly, the official discourse is claimed to be considerably affected by the political elite and the respective leader's personal perceptions, therefore the overview of literature on the image building and personal political rhetoric are going to be provided.

Starting with the third level, it can be seen that the majority of scholars agrees on applying the structural realism to the examination of the peaceful rise politics and its effects on the global order and existing distribution of power among the players. Here, the classical neorealist texts of Waltz and Mearsheimer are of importance to outline the key propositions, predicting that with the rise of one player in its capabilities and emergence of a new pole in the incumbent multipolarity is going to provoke balancing and alliance formation as the gravity would shift in favor of a rising power challenging the status quo (Waltz, 1979; Mearsheimer, 2001). Therefore, ever since the beginning of the rise domestically, following China's acquisition of the great power status, the scholars, including Callahan (2005), have been claiming that the case of China, regardless of the articulated peacefulness will inevitably constitute insecurities for the other actors, especially the United States, Japan, Russia, therefore, the balancing tendencies with the means of both hard and soft power are a logical strategy for them to pursue. Starting from the beginning of the 2000s it is especially evident, as China has started to deliver more active political actions with Hu and Xi administrations, continuing the massive rise of the state course, started by Deng Xiaoping, broadening and extending it to the international level, projecting power both regionally and globally with accord to the agenda, especially with regard to the developing states' interests.

The great power strategy chosen by the Chinese government implies significant alterations to the existing order. The scholars notice, that during the period when the actual rise, meaning rapid development, took place, neither China nor other players were engaging in open balancing and counteraction, as China was not perceived as a major threat to their spheres of influence: the state was concerned mainly with the domestic adjustments and seemed passive to the issue not directly connected to the national interest or objectives. However, by 2000s the result of the liberalizations has become evident, and having obtained the capabilities, China has started to form a new political course of involvement with the global issues, assist states in development, engage in securitization of regional stability, under the framework of the responsible great power (RGP), according to De Santis (2005). The rise of new regional power and its attempts at patronage of the region, influencing its dynamics is considered to make significant changes to the 20th century existing pattern, particularly, the reestablishment of the China-dominated regionalism has proved to provoke different type of sentiments from the small, middle and great powers, resulting in shifts in relations with declining Japan and rising India (Breslin, 2010). Alone the same lines, Baldwin (1993) argues that the rise in the economic political capabilities of one state, especially if to the degree at which it forms a separate pole in the multipolar system, encourages balancing on behalf of the other actors so as to adjust to the new or to restore the previous status quo. The theory explains the introduction and explicit usage of the “China threat” argument and China's urge to prove that the rise's character is peaceful and is not likely to aim at revisionist policies. In other words, it is concerned with the mutually beneficial interrelation between China and other states (Simon & Goh, 2007).

At the same time, some of the scholars argue that structural realism is insufficient for the constructive analysis as it is unable to capture the importance of the Chinse emphasis on the peacefulness of its rise, as well as it neglects the domestic conditions. Particularly, Sшrensen (2013) argues that the neorealist approach should be upgraded, as the peaceful rise discourse is determined, first of all, by the internal affairs, namely the political polarization inside the party-government, as the developed coherent political course is absent. The scholar states that the peaceful rise rhetoric has performed well with regard to the hegemony of the US, which enabled China to carry out regional actions while non interfering with US sphere of influence directly, however in the condition of the present decline of the multipolarity in favor of a unipolar world, even the peacefulness is perceived differently depending on the actor, therefore it is no longer the grand strategy, shifting towards what is interpreted as bolder actions (Kim, 2018). Therefore, the researchers consider this change in the political direction, though under the same framework endorsed since 1980s, subject to the influence of the domestic factors, alone with international conditions, connecting the third and the second images.

The idea of Deng Xiaoping's reforms and their necessity for the economic boost have been attributed, firstly, to the influence of the global system, forcing the underperforming planned economy to adjust to the requirements of the laissez faire market. Importance of institutional design and the role of political and economic institutions had been explicitly stated in scholarly papers including ones by Keohane (1984) and Moravcsik (1992). As highlighted by Keohane (1984), the origins and establishment of institutional bodies are frequently subject to the liberal hegemony as it installs the normative legal moral basis, forming the system of laws and regulations. Applying the proposition to the case of China, it can be seen that during the reformation Japan had been still regarded regional hegemon actively participating in the Asian integration and economic development by subsidizing and investing into the rising economies, including China. At the same time, Japan represented a market open economy which facilitated the necessity of the partial economic liberation of Chinese provinces and special free economic zones for the integration with the regional and global markets (Akamatsu, 1962). Along the same lines, Kojima (2000) argues that by 1970s the examples of Japan and other emerging Asian Tigers have had and implicit influence on China for the acknowledgement of the required shift in the economic course in order to fuel the development. From the neo-neo perspective, according to Keohane (2002), it is evident that the structure of international relations, rapid proliferation of liberal tradition and the universality of liberal norms have pushed forward the ideas of Deng Xiaoping's reforms and opening-up policy in order to attract capital flows, engage in liberal trade, and through the spillover effect initiate progress in all of the other spheres, following the economic one.

Concerning the state level analysis in the framework of the research question, the existing literature materials can also be divided into those primarily dealing with the establishment of local institutions and the actual governmental actions undertaken by Deng Xiaoping administration, while the other part considers the social cognitive component in the discourse of the rise politics starting from late 1970s up to the contemporary situation. Specifically, as both Narine (2004) and Lecours (2005) claim, internal institutional reorganization is usually fostered through the connection between the domestic civil society with the global one which makes the national authorities converge to the reformative path driven by the societal forces. In case of China by the beginning of the 1980s, the scholars advocate, the factors, including scarce capital, demotivation of the labor force, economic downturn and death of Mao Zedong, have driven the change in political and economic strategies, favoring liberalization and introduction of lacking micro- and macro-economic institutions (Narine, 2004; Rodrik, 2003). The connection between the domestic sphere and interstate level, thus, has determined the push toward a tighter compliance with the universal rules and regulations which happen to be on the liberal dimension (Lecours, 2005).

At the same time, according to scholarly papers, in the process of the rapid progression, restoration of international status and authority were put forward under the pressure of domestic instability, caused by the nationalist movements. In particular, Zhang (2015) argues that insistence of the political leaders starting from Deng Xiaoping himself and following up to Xi Jinping on the peacefulness is vital both to emphasize China's nonaggression and to introduce tranquility to the population masses that strive for an active assertive militarism on behalf of the government, which is detrimental both for the domestic and foreign affairs. Therefore, the peaceful rise of China course ever since 1980s reformation up to the respective period of 2000-2019 has been built upon the Confucianist values, Asian diplomacy and propose restoration of the former strategy that was pursued by the ancient and medieval China in the relations with other states, namely mutual benefits, cultural assimilation and inclusivism, as well as, economic assistance and mentoring (Zhang, 2015; Cohen, 2007). As scholar states, the idea has been further embodied in modern Asian regional pattern, in contemporary literature frequently addressed to as the Eastphalian peace that entails the reestablishment of neo-tributary system based on common historical and cultural experience (Beeson, 2013).

In addition, as mentioned above, the reintroduction of the Confucianism into the discourse has been often claimed directly connected to the political leader's vision of the future of China and direction of the rise politics. With regard to the individual level then, Boulding's (1959) theory of image construction is of particular usefulness for explaining the origins of the peaceful rise course and China's approach to regional and nonregional powers. Particularly, the scholar highlights the importance of the constructivist, ideational basis, that is image formation based on the national mentality and psychological peculiarities of the individuals, thus every nation-state as well as its leader possesses a certain self-image, image of the state and of the international realm. The images are built with inclusion of capabilities factor and national interests, therefore if the images of the world actors are analyzed with the means of a matrix, the compatibility between them forms the balance of power. However, in case the image is incompatible with others, it leads to the change in the status quo and tensions. Herrmann and Fischerkeller (1995) agree, underlining that after the end of the Cold War, based majorly on the misperception of each other's intentions, the study of the image building strategies is of particular importance, and effective in explaining the cases, like China and its attempts to eliminate Chine-threat attitudes and appear responsible for its actions.

As seen from the literature, based on the different mentality, and alternative approach to the foreign policy conduct originating from historical path dependence, the image of China is extremely controversial for the great powers to perceive and comprehend. Thus, according to the scholars, balancing and reassessment of the grand strategy is inevitable under the system constraints. Consequently, growing number of scholars, including Yan (2014) advocate for the necessity of the adaptation to the conditions and shift toward more assertive and firm position. Yan (2014) argues that now one of the underlying motives behind Xi's politics is that if he sees China as an emerging hegemon, the state indeed has to become more assertive and show the other players an alternative world order pattern, different from the incumbent US dominance. The evidence of this logic behind the rise politics can be driven back to the Beijing Consensus and its success, compared to the failure of the Washington Consensus, which offers a possible alternative path of development represented to the developing states of Africa and Asia, where the same patterns can be implemented by the regional leaders. In addition, the scholar points to the fact that acting as a great power entails promotion through the organization of own institutions and alliances, based on to what author refers to as “moral realism”, argument supported by Jisi (2011). The state needs to gain recognition as an international player and a rising pole, therefore it is natural for it to strive the change in status quo, which is a realist revisionist behavior, but based on the moral values of Confucianism which are owed to the historical ideational heritage of the Middle Kingdom.

To conclude, taking everything into the account, the literature materials on the discourse regarding the peaceful rise of China are abundant, however, several limitations have been noticed. Firstly, the majority of the resources are focused on a single aspect of the phenomenon, for instance, the reformation process, meaning the actual institutional adjustments of late 1970s - early 1990s, the effects on the domestic conditions or in the international system, while others are more concerned with the bilateral relations development under the rise course, converging to case studies. Therefore, it has been established, that the absence of the existing research carried out with regard to our research question and hypothesis construct a certain research gap which we attempt to start filling in by the means of this paper which examines both the institutional origins of the rise and its effects on the contemporary international relations and their studies. Secondly, concerning the chosen time period of 2000-2019, the literature materials remain relatively scarce, especially those covering the issues starting from 2010s, which both limits the ability to run a research, while representing another niche that is aimed at occupying. Hence, in the paper we aim at combining the literature and documented data materials to provide an original complex approach to the evolution of the rise politics from the stage of purely economic and political development in 80s-90s to active participation in the issues of global agenda during the last two decades following national interests and adjusting the strategy converging to the great power behavior.

Methodological overview

The available scholarly research provides the paper with several key ideas. First of all, we assume that the Beijing Consensus has originated from the gradual shift in the economic and consequent political strategy of the Chinese state oriented toward liberalization and openness based on the bottom-up approach. Before the government of Deng Xiaoping has come to power the implemented heavy industry development strategy (HIDS) had resulted in scarce capital resources, lacking incentives for the labor to produce, which had given rise to various nationalist sentiments among the population (Lin, Cai & Li, 2003). Therefore, within more liberally oriented government it was acknowledged that economic progress is a first-order priority for the mainland China due to a number of factors, namely, the catch-up development, strengthening of the actorship ability with regard to the international issues and relations with other players, as well as, reviving the former heritage of the ancient China so as to satisfy the population's strive for the revenge policy. At the same time, it can be seen that the gradual successful development and rise of China had provoked a variety of perceptions corresponding to a neorealist approach, with its direct embodiment in the balancing strategies and “China threat” theory. Consequently, driven by the pursuit of inclusion and integration within the international system, these conditions had been taken into the account by the Chinese authorities, so ever since late 1970s and especially during the period of our interest the “Peaceful Rise” discourse has been adopted and popularly promoted.

On the other hand, even though the idea of the peacefulness and non-aggression has been the main slogan of the rise politics it can be proved by the evidence from existing research and empirics, that Chinese approach especially since the rise had reached the peak in late 1980s, differs with regard to the regional players and the global ones, which constitutes a research puzzle. Therefore, the research question is whether the ongoing rise of China can be considered peaceful and non-aggressive throughout the last decades. With this regard, our hypothesis states that the actual undertaken political actions are not likely to violate the principle of the peaceful rise, however the rise itself and Chinese national strategies are perceived in a contradictive manner by the Chinese state itself and by key global players, which is the most illustrative on the cases of the US, the EU, Russia, Japan and regional actors, especially India and the ASEAN member states.

The hypothesis confirmation and the research conduction are performed by the means of various qualitative methods, including the case studies, discourse and textual analyses based on the literature materials, scholarly research papers, articles, and books. Due to the fact that the Chinese government restricts access to substantial part of official documents containing detailed information on the character and implementation of the institutional reorganization, as well as bilateral agreements with other states, the data contained in the official governmental sources cannot be obtained, which constructs a considerable limitation for the research. However, this obstacle is going to be overcome through the use of scholarly papers, that are based on official documents, thus, represent both primary and secondary sources. Secondly, for the discourse analysis we have examined the available primary sources, original researches based on the transcripts of the PRC leaders' speeches, as currently the majority of them is published by the media, which might introduce possible distortions to tracing the change in the political party attitude and course with regard to regional and global policies. Thirdly, we resort to qualitative application and outlook on the economic models, particularly theory of economic backwardness by Gerschenkron and Rostow's take-off model, in order to assess the character of the rise as a dependent upon internal or external conditions, generating sequence of further developments.

For the purpose of the paper, we adopt several key definitions. First, we define the rise of China as a continues political course of obtaining international actorship, driven by the state-specific economic reforms fostering overall development (Gu, Humphrey & Messner, 2008). Second, peace is defined as the absence of open military conflicts between the players, thus, finally under the peaceful rise we understand the development of Chinese state and it becoming one of the global key actors, whose status acquisition is not based on escalation of military conflicts with incumbent great power states. In addition, the selection of the case studies is made with the use of classification of the great powers by Brzezinski (2012).

With the chosen research design and selected object of the research that is the peaceful rise, the main body of the paper is divided into three chapters, with the first one considering the process of reformation during the late 1970s early 1990s with a subsequent examination of the actual measures undertaken in the spheres of economics and supporting political reforms oriented towards liberalization. At the same time the second half of the chapter is devoted to the activities of China in the international organizations to indicate that during the reformation the state had been majorly focused on the domestic affairs and internal development rather than active participation in the international relations. Therefore, the conclusion of the chapter is expected to prove that the initial rise politics had been indeed peaceful as it was mostly oriented towards endogenous processes and implied a degree of passiveness to power politics.

On the other hand, the forthcoming two chapters of the paper are aimed at demonstrating the actual change and its origins in the rise discourse on the example of the chosen period of 2000-2019. The second chapter examines Chinese foreign policy behavior towards the regional neighbors and politics outside the region, based on the analysis of the main trends and principles governing the foreign policy. The discussion will include both the origins of the great power strategy, and the pattern of Asian regionalism. In particular, firstly, we conduct a research on the process of the establishment of the great Middle Kingdom cognition and the tributary system that had been the main governing principle of Chinese relations with other states. Secondly, the following section describes the application of the examined historical strategy to the contemporary Asian regional structure, the model that had been referred to as the Eastphalian Peace. The theoretical background is supported by the case studies of interrelations with the key regional and global players to indicate the difference in the approach based on peacefulness in East and Southeast Asia and outside it.

The focus of the last chapter is the analysis of the perceptions of the rise politics during the last two decades starting with 2000s describing the approaches, constructed by China's own vision of the process which is based on the ideas of the neo-tributary system and the responsible great power strategy underlining the peacefulness and non-aggression of Chinese policies. While the second approach majorly taken by the Western hemisphere states shows that Chinese actions have been considered to have become more assertive and even aggressive compared to the period of reformation of 1980s when the rise was purely peaceful in terms of absent open hard power conflicts, now shifting towards profound expansion into Asia and Africa. Therefore, the two perspectives are going to be represented in detail and contrasted. The aim of the paper, thus, is to show that, even though, the period of Chinese indifference to the global leadership and power distribution among the poles has ended after reaching the economic power status, that is by the end of reformation process in the late 1990s and currently China visibly seeks, at least, soft power projection over certain areas, this has to be analyzed with the means of different constructivist theories beside pure structural realism, to understand the polarization of perceptions.

Chapter 1. The rise to development

The majority of economists agrees upon the fact that the visible part of the rise of China is its economic development that skyrocketed straight after the liberal reforms. The aim of the chapter, thus, is to show that during the reform period the main focus and priority of the state was domestic industrialization and getting access to the global market and financial system, therefore, China had been relatively reluctant to other spheres and issues in the international realm, that were not related to the state directly. Consequently, it can be assumed that passiveness on global arena and concentration on domestic affairs had been the characteristic of the truly peaceful rise to the power, firstly, economic, and then political, while the state was mostly immersed into the internal matters to engage in power politics and intrigues of the other actors.

1.1 Beijing Consensus

The literature on the reformation processes of late 1970s - early 1990s is abundant due to the fact that China's immense success at building a mixed economy bearing elements of both liberal structure, namely in mass production, and command one, particularly in strategic industries. The case of China represents a valuable scheme of economic development, some patterns of which can be implemented in various spheres across developing countries. We would like to highlight that the process would be impossible if it was not for the rebuilding and renovation of the economic structure of the state, with the main emphasis put on the formation of the lacking macro- and microeconomic institutions. The issue can be explained through the analysis of the pre-reform period and Mao Zedong's approach to economic development and prosperity that was based on the Heavy Industry Development Strategy (HIDS) taken upon the example of the USSR. The action plan indeed produced positive growth, however, it could had been noticed that the growth had been temporary, as the collectivization and pouring of the available scarce capital resources into heavy industry had resulted in the lack of personal motivation to perform among the individuals, as well as drain of the capital. In the long-run perspective, the system was insufficient, therefore on the eve of the reformation it was decided to rearrange the whole path to development methods and institutionalize a system that would beneficial and be based on state's abundant resources and comparative advantage, that resulted in the China-specific strategy that filled in the institutional gaps and set the course to growth.

To commence with, it is important to start then, with the institutions and their effects. It has been widely commented on the value of the institutional formation and regulation of instate processes, considering them the sets of rules and regulations, governing the respective actors, organizations, departments and bureaucracies, ensuring their compliance with the set system of laws and principles (Bull, 2012). The proposed definition is a widespread conception subscribed to in the New Institutionalism theory, highlighting the importance of the institutions particularly for the domestic matters, as they initiate the creation of co-binding mechanism and network of cooperation (March and Olsen, 1983). However, it can be seen that the internal reformation was driven both by the domestic need for the rapid development and substitution for the underperforming economy, and the acknowledgement of the globalized world conditions. Particularly, due to the fact that the global economy has been based on laissez-faire principles, the states have been encouraged to obtain at least some elements of liberal system in order to effectively integrate into the global economic relations and not be marginalized. In case of the international trade and finance, the institutions regulating the processes have been of a greater scales of competencies, compared to domestic ones, however, the scholars, including Krasner (1983), Keohane (1988), have been pointing out to the same idea of formation of rules, laws and norms, agreed upon and obeyed to by all the participating actors in a particular area under the condition of an existing shared interest or goal. In the realist-liberal dichotomy, the institutions and organizations act as anarchy mediators, by shaping the preferences and perceptions of the players, enabled to use coercive measures and legal punishments in instances of law violations. In case of China, the inclusion into international institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, has obliged the state to incorporate previously unacceptable procedures into its economic activities.

Institutionalization of a liberal economy had been undergoing several stages before yielding progressive output. According to Ho (2005), the transformation process should be based on the establishment of necessary macro- and microeconomic formation, first, the scholar argues, that constituting the private property rights is a key factor for the development of a capitalist economy. In other words, the market is based upon substantive share of private owners and entrepreneurs, therefore, the right to conduct and own business has an impact upon successive implementation of liberal measures. Evident from the examples of other states, for instance in African region, where similar attempts and reformation had been made, introduction of private ownership is vital to the construction of the free liberal market (Besley, 1995). The issue is explained through the fact that in order for the market to function the extent of state intervention and property right over material and land resources has to be considerably minimized. Therefore, the land reform was the first one for the creation of the self-regulatory mechanisms advocated by Adam Smith. What is more, the scholar highlights that for the effectiveness' increase it is necessary to perform the changes on the gradual basis, that is level by level. Hence, the chosen course of reforms had been prescribed a down-up scheme, creating the conditions of the appearance of the capitalist culture starting from agricultural sector and individuals, following with the entrepreneurs and syndicates, and, finally, the national level.

The process can be illustrated with the use of development models, particularly, the ones conceptualized by Gerschenkron (1962) and Rostow (1960). While some scholars consider them to be the opposite extremes of the Developmental state theory, we aim to show that the models are interconnected and can be simultaneously applied to China's reform period. First of all, Gerschenkron (1962) proposed that the development of a state is extremely determined by its history, that is the highlight of the path dependence. With this regard the scholar argues that ineffectiveness of agriculture-based feudal system prevalent in developing states generates insufficient capital, thus delaying the process of industrialization. Following from the model, it can be seen that in case of China, the state remained divided between agriculture dominated sector and hard industry, the product of Mao's Great Leap Forward policy, up until late 70s. Both spheres had proved to be insufficiently productive, thus, resulting in capital deficits. Consequently, in order to completely rebuild the economic system, it was necessary to first accumulate the necessary level of capital resource endowment, hence, for this matter the financial support of the infant industries and state intervention and control were an inherent part of the procedure. The same pattern is advocated by Gerschenkron's “catch-up” model, highlighting the necessity of state control and nurturing of strategically important sectors on the early stages of industrial development (Gerschenkron, 1962).

The concept promoted by Rostow (1960) can be considered a valuable extension of the above-described model, as the scholar theorized the whole process of economic “take-off” in developing states, by dividing the procedure into five main stages that economy undergoes, starting from the societal level up to mass consumption. What can be traced from this scheme is the shrinking of the public sector and considerable widening of the private one that illustrates the decrease in government intervention into the economy, shifting from the mainly state ownership over resources and strict regulation of the industrial development as well as state provision of protectionist measures for the support of domestic production, to, consequently, self-regulatory market economy and majorly privately-lead property ownership (Rostow, 1960). For the paper it is of considerable use, as the scholar depicts the actual process that had been going on during liberalization of the respective period - the bottom-up procedures aimed at introduction and widening of the private practice creating the space for development of a tertiary service sector simultaneously with the industrialization, in response to the global trends of growing need for services provision.

When it comes to analyzing the actual measures that were taken, the Chinese government substantially limits the access to the official documents and data, which extensively constraints the research conduction. In this paper onwards we consider the usage of scholarly research based on official documents as primary sources. The chapter is going to be majorly based on the research by Brodsgaard (1987) performed with the use of CPC documents. As the scholar notices, the reformation has been subject to multiple debate among the party elite, especially after the side effects in the form of inflation have started to appear resulting from the first wave of reforms in a small number of provinces, including Sichuan. Particularly, the governments of selected provinces had granted a degree of independence to the private businessmen, while opening areas for the foreign investments: large portions of capital poured into local economies, under budget exhaustion had resulted in a spill-over. It had then been concluded that gradual reforms would be the most efficient, as the state was not ready to adapt itself to any radical measures, risking a collapse. Therefore, by 1982 following from Hu Yaobang's report to Party Congress, the party has agreed upon the new structure of the economy, namely division between the sectors of industries of strategic importance and production of essentials, and the smaller sector of local unregulated businesses to introduce the market culture staring from the bottom (Brodsgaard, 1987).

Nevertheless, regardless of the fact that the applied measures have contributed to the emergence of a micro level market and elements of liberal economy, the GDP produced by the hard industry was still considerably high, as Brodsgaard (1987) claims, while simultaneously, the openness policy had started to yield investments. This have led to a dramatic growth of the economy by 1983, so that the risk of reaching a following plummet was significant. Consequently, in order to prevent the downgrading stage of economic cycle, the government had agreed to apply temporary constraints on the growth, to catalyze the increases and prevent inevitable downturn. The scholar claims, these Keynesian measures of artificial balancing were necessary to maintain the steady growth level. In the result, it can be even argued, that this strategy in particular has become one of the determining factors of China's success, yet at the same time, currently on behalf of other actors, especially the US, these measures have been often accused of artificial maintenance of RMB value to ensure its usability and turnout (Lin, Cai and Li, 2003).