Legitimacy and the Limits of Nationalism: China and the Diaoyu Islands

Abstract

How concerned should the international community be about the influence of nationalism in Chinese foreign policymaking? And what role does nationalism play in establishing and maintaining the domestic legitimacy of the Chinese leadership? Erica Strecker Downs and Phillip Saunders, both at Princeton University, argue that nationalism and political legitimacy have been and will continue to be closely linked in China. In their view, however, fears that nationalism combined with China’s growing economic and military power will result in increasingly aggressive behavior are “overstated, or at least premature.” Strecker Downs and Saunders use China’s 1990 and 1996 disputes with Japan over the Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands to make their case.