Applying Chinese Moral Realist School of Thought: Comparing Chinese and Russian Approaches to Civil Wars in Sudan and Syria

How are Chinese and Russian leaderships reflected in their contrasting engagement in the Syrian and Sudanese civil wars? In this paper, rhetoric and global perceptions are studied according to Yan Xuetong’s theory of Moral Realism. The two civil wars were selected as relevant cases due to their similarities, namely they represent dramatic humanitarian crises with regional spillovers, and displacements of populations. Further, they are strategically situated: one is in the Horn of Africa, and the other is within the reach of the Belt and Road Initiative. The benefit of qualitative research in considering the global arena’s perceptions of China and Russia’s actions is to extract information about their place in the 21st-century international order. Two parts are articulated in this paper: first, the leaders' framing of their decisions and, second, the reactions of the rest of the world. Speeches are assessed through thematic and media analysis to categorise their respective leaderships. China tends to favour non-intervention and economic development, given its strategic interests in natural resources. Moscow has taken a more hands-on approach in the conflicts, but its strategy evolved since the start of the post-Assad era. Moral realism gives insight into how the methods and goals of China and Russia abroad are seen in the global sphere. However, they also have an increasingly divergent model of governance, reflecting distinct governance styles and interests. Following the categorisation provided in Professor Yan’s book, this paper finds that the novelty of Xi Jinping’s foreign policies and a new Chinese proactivity in the global order are “humane”: an economically consistent and trustworthy leadership. On the other hand, while Vladimir Putin’s military actions abroad are increasingly received negatively, they are consistent but untrustworthy, thus “tyrannical”. These findings challenge Western perspectives on China’s foreign policy.