Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China's Foreign Relations

by Jessica Chen Weiss

Overview

What role do nationalism and popular protest play in China's foreign relations? Chinese authorities permitted anti-American demonstrations in 1999 but repressed them in 2001 during two crises in U.S.-China relations. Anti-Japanese protests were tolerated in 1985, 2005, and 2012 but banned in 1990 and 1996. Protests over Taiwan, the issue of greatest concern to Chinese nationalists, have never been allowed. To explain this variation, Powerful Patriots identifies the diplomatic as well as domestic factors that drive protest management in authoritarian states. Because nationalist protests are costly to repress and may turn against the government, allowing protests demonstrates resolve and makes compromise more costly in diplomatic relations. Repressing protests, by contrast, sends a credible signal of reassurance, facilitating diplomatic flexibility. Powerful Patriots traces China's management of dozens of nationalist protests and their consequences between 1985 and 2012.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199399017
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Jessica Chen Weiss is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University. The dissertation on which this book is based won the 2009 American Political Science Association Helen Dwight Reid Award. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego and founded FACES, the Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford, while an undergraduate at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Nationalist Protest and Authoritarian Diplomacy Chapter 3 Anti-American Protest and U.S.-China Crisis Diplomacy Chapter 4 The 1985 Anti-Japan Protests and Sino-Japanese Relations in the 1980s Chapter 5 Protests Repressed: Sino-Japanese Relations in the 1990s Chapter 6 The 2005 Anti-Japan Protests and Sino-Japanese Relations in the 2000s Chapter 7 Protests Restrained: Repairing Sino-Japanese Relations (2006-2010) and the 2010 Trawler Collision Chapter 8 The 2012 Anti-Japan Protests and the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Purchase Chapter 9 Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"...Weiss proves to be a tenacious investigator, making her book an invaluable chronicle of how China, Japan and the US have handled charged diplomatic confrontations." — Financial Times

"Shedding particular light on state management of nationalist protests is Jessica Chen Weiss' Powerful Patriots." — Bill Weinberg, New Politics

"Chen Weiss has helped us open the black box that connects domestic politics with foreign policy. Her probing of nationalist protests is thorough and nuanced." — Perspectives on Politics

"Jessica Weiss has written a pioneering rationalist account of when, how and why Chinese leaders use nationalist protest for foreign policy bargaining purposes. The argument is tight, and the evidence is both rich and systematically presented. The book is an important addition to the small but burgeoning literature on the foreign policy of authoritarian states, and on the role of public opinion in Chinese foreign policy. Definitely a must-read book."
—Alastair Iain Johnston, Harvard University

"In her timely and pathbreaking study... Jessica Chen Weiss has taken us behind the scenes of a crucial form of diplomatic theatre. She introduces us to influential players we never knew, decodes sensitive government decisions reached in private, and provides the first systematic analysis of Chinese handling of grassroots nationalist demonstrations. With the analytical power of a social scientist, and the reach of a great investigator, Weiss found and interviewed nearly two hundred activists, diplomats, and others. Her findings should retire two caricatures: protesters as mere puppets of the state, and mobs of unmanageable nationalists who force the hand of diplomats; the truth lies in between, and Weiss has laid it bare. This is a book every China watcher will need at hand as the conflicts in the East China Sea and South China Sea set the stage for wider protests in the years to come."
—Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition and staff writer at New Yorker

"This important and timely book provides the first systematic study of anti-foreign protests in today's China. Weiss offers a novel and nuanced argument to explain when and why these protests are allowed—and when and why they are suppressed. As Weiss shows, the diplomatic objectives that China's leaders pursue are often a decisive factor, as protests can be tolerated to signal resolve or blocked to signal reassurance. Anyone interested in contemporary Chinese foreign policy should read this book."
—M. Taylor Fravel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"This is a fascinating analysis of how Chinese leaders have tried to manage, and sometimes manipulate, the double-edged sword of nationalist sentiment in international disputes with Japan and the U.S. Weiss shows how the regime takes advantage of nationalist protests to credibly convey resolve in disputes, and also how credibility entails costs-risks to regime stability and risks of unintended military escalation. Essential reading for anyone interested in possible paths to interstate war and regime change in Asia."
—James D. Fearon, Stanford University

"Are Chinese policymakers driven to take more assertive foreign policy positions by the pressure of nationalist public opinion, or do they merely use that opinion as a tool to strengthen their hand in negotiations with other powers? Weiss presents a nuanced but clear answer in favor of the latter position."
— Foreign Affairs

"...shows how China's leaders are riding a nationalist tiger: They've made the tiger roar for their own purposes, but its sharp teeth may yet to bite them, and us"
—WORLD Magazine

"Chen Weiss sustains her argument well. A prudent Chinese leadership should, she counsels, balance the long-term risks of stoking Chinese nationalism against the short-term gains of diplomatic pressure. This is a book well worth reading."
—Pacific Affairs

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