Face-off: A Cultural Explanation of Ambivalence in China's Grand Strategy

The paper analyzes the internal incoherence of China’s current grand strategy. To that end it uses three cultural drivers (fear, interest, honor) to explain contradictions in China’s military strategy, as well as in economic and diplomatic policies. The central research question asks why China’s foreign policy often diverges from its proclaimed “Peaceful Development” approach, leading to major contradictions in its grand strategic manifestations. The standard of reference that will be utilized and examined in order to establish congruence and coherence between deed and praxis is honor, and by extension the search for prestige, status, reputation, and recognition of China as a great power. Accordingly, the study posits, first, that if policy diverges from or is incongruent with China’s standard of national honor, then grand strategy is internally incoherent. Conversely, if policy is consistent or congruent with China’s sense of national honor, then its grand strategy is internally coherent