Publication

As China’s hard power is growing, the Party-state is keen to construct a new narrative which legitimizes China’s position as a world leader also from the soft power perspective. The Confucian version of the Golden Rule, “what you do not wish for yourself, do not do unto others”, is said to lead to the principles of mutual non-interference, equality and peaceful coexistence. A Chinese international relations model seems to suggest a rules-based community or commonwealth, global in scope and international or even supranational in character. The authority to define the rules would lie within the state, which manifests responsible and moral leadership.