Routledge Handbook of Strategic Culture

13 China’s Identity through a Historical Lens¹

Neil Munro

DOI: 10.4324/9781003010302-16

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to give a simple description of China’s identity by summarizing salient features of its history and relating them to current issues in great power competition. It does not characterize China’s strategic culture in general terms, a task that has been ably attempted elsewhere.² The chapter does not take an either/or position in the debates over whether China’s strategic culture is offensive or defensive, realist or driven by ideas. Whether it is offensive or defensive depends on the situation, and the conclusions of practitioners who use the strategic culture concept suggest that, while realism is the core of Chinese ...